Global Health Research Group
Emphasising the University's commitment to healthy, thriving communities worldwide, with a focus on countries with limited resources.
About us
Formerly the Winchester Centre for Global Health, the Global Health Research Group is a dynamic hub working to help tackle global challenges through its research-related activity and teaching, by addressing ‘the most urgent problems facing humankind’, as set out in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Centre members collaborate with health practitioners, employers, policy makers and academics to improve the understanding and knowledge of and participation in global health practice, mainly - though not exclusively - where human need is great and available resources are limited.
An underpinning principle of the Centre is developing an understanding of knowledge exchange by encouraging the evaluation and research of global health activity. We aim to make our research and expertise accessible to a wide group of stakeholders through dissemination, collaboration and through our course provision.
Our MSc Global Health is a postgraduate distance learning course equipping you to make a difference to health where human need is great and available resources are limited, while studying alongside global health practitioners from around the world.
Our Introduction to Global Health is an online short course that has been created to give an introduction to health in the global context, with 5-10 hours of online, self-paced study. It outlines ways to achieve a sustainable world and good health for all.
Centre members work in partnership with Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust as part of a Global Health Hub. This exciting new venture brings together the academic, clinical, charitable and educational skills of staff to undertake collaborative global health work across the world. One of the first projects initiated by the Hub aims to help improve palliative care in Ghana. Currently the project team is working with a leading individual within the Ghanian Government to collaborate on future plans to build hospices across the country. Read the full press release.
Main areas of focus:
- Exploration of the scope, importance and nature of practice in global health
- Collaboration in and support of networks, the participants of which are engaged in or have oversight of global health activity, in communities with limited resources
- Creation of robust methodologies for the evaluation of the impact of global health sustainable projects
Latest news
23 April 2024: Honouring late co-founder David Percy
The event featured staff presentations and a David Percy Memorial Lecture by Lord Nigel Crisp, an independent member of the House of Lords who co-chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health. He was a former Chief Executive of the English National Health Service and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health. He works and publishes extensively in global health and international development. His latest book is Turning the World Upside Down Again: Global health in a time of pandemics, climate change and political turmoil.
Dr David Percy qualified as a doctor in 1972 at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School in London, followed by Membership (1976) and Fellowship (1996) of the Royal College of General Practice. In 2008 he was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education at the University of Winchester. Following a career as a GP in Southampton, he became Director of Postgraduate General Practice Education and Associate Postgraduate Dean at the Wessex Deanery (1994-1999). He then undertook national work at the Department of Health in Workforce Development, followed by successive appointments in Global Health particularly in Zambia. In 2013 he became a Visiting Fellow at the University of Winchester and co-led the creation of its Centre for Global Health, and from 2020 taught on the BA (Hons) International Development: Global Health. In 2023 David was posthumously made a University Honorary Fellow.
Collaborations
The Kintampo Project
The Kintampo Project was a large-scale education programme that helped develop new mental health workers in Ghana. It ran between 2007-2017 and has vastly increased Ghana’s community mental health provision. The project originated via Tropical Health Education Trust UK (THET) facilitation when the College of Health and Wellbeing, Kintampo, a Ghanaian health professions college, contacted THET in 2006 seeking support. A link was formed between the college and a UK team centred on Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust in Hampshire.
Adding hundreds of mental health workers to the workforce has meant that thousands of Ghanaians with mental health disorders and their families now receive support, often for the first time. As the practice of these mental health workers was new, there was no experience of their likely clinical role; nobody had prepared them before for this and there were no identified educators or supervisors to support them, so at the start of the project there were no initial or in-service opportunities for them as professionals. All of that was devised and introduced as part of the project.
The full impact of the project is still being assessed. A survey of all Ghana’s mental health services in 2011 (see link below) illustrates provision at that time and the survey is being repeated in 2020. The education programmes developed via The Kintampo Project now run fully independent in Ghana and have even been upgraded and extended. The new workforce is still growing and is now a major force within mental health services in Ghana.
One of the main clothing crafts in Ghana is weaving, and health care workers wear uniforms that are typically made from traditional Ghanaian cloth. "On Fridays, employees are encouraged to wear traditional outfits; this tradition is called ‘thank Ghana it’s Friday’", explains Visiting Fellow Dr Rosie Lusznat (image left, with Prof. Colin Coles). "Visiting teams often receive traditional outfits as welcome gifts and are expected to wear them with pride!'"
Literature
Roberts et al. 2013 The mental health system in Ghana - full report
Rural Health Training School documents
Guidelines for Preceptors supporting the training of MAP and CMHO
Curriculum for Degree in Clinical Psychiatry
Curriculum for Community Mental Health Officer
Partnerships in Health Information (Phi)
Phi is a programme dedicated to contributing to improved health care in countries with few material resources. By building partnerships between health libraries, Phi supports access to reliable health information.
Find out more about Phi:
Contact the University Phi lead, Chris Zielinski
Surgical teams Working In Africa Together for Safer Surgery (SWIFTSS)
SWIFTSS is a UK-based charitable trust (UK Registered Charity No. 1186564) established in 2019 with the goal to help improve surgical care in Africa through collaboration, education and training. Following the successful development of a safe, affordable and sustainable mesh hernia repair service using ‘mosquito net mesh’ in Muheza, Tanzania, their first project is the Tanzania Mesh Hernia Project. Building upon this ‘Muheza Approach’ and in collaboration with the Tanzanian Surgical Association (TSA), the ambitious aim is to establish mesh hernia surgery as the gold standard approach to inguinal hernia repair throughout Tanzania within 5 years. SWIFTSS and the Winchester Centre for Global Health have teamed up for mutual benefit and to help drive ongoing improvement in global health.
Find out more about SWIFTSS (Surgical teams Working In Africa Together for Safer Surgery)
The Tanzania National Mesh Hernia Repair Project
Wessex Global Health Network
The Wessex Global Health Network, led by Dr John Acres, helps people interested in global health to keep in touch with each other and to remain up to date with local, national and international developments.
Through its concern for the health needs of refugees, WGHN is also a partner in the University's Sanctuary Network.
Find out more about the Wessex Global Health Network.
Contact us
The Winchester Centre for Global Health is keen to hear from other health practitioners, employers, policy makers and academics who wish to be involved in collaborative work. For any enquiries, contact the Convenor, Dr Rachel Locke.
Meet the team
Convenor: Dr Rachel Locke
Rachel is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health.
Gaya is Senior Lecturer in Global Health.
John is a Visiting Fellow and coordinates the Wessex Global Health Network.
Colin is a co-founder of the former Winchester Centre for Global Health. He founded the centre alongside the late Dr David Percy.
Rosie is a Visiting Fellow and Associate Dean for Professional Development in the Wessex Professional Support Unit at NHS Health Education England.
Mark is a Visiting Fellow and a consultant colorectal and general surgeon at Salisbury NHS FT. He is the founder of SWIFTSS (Surgical teams Working In aFrica Together for Safer Surgery, see above under Collaborations).
Simon is a Visiting Fellow and a consultant paediatrician with a special interest in infectious diseases, neonates and the acutely unwell child. Dr Struthers is working to link up different local global health projects through the new Hampshire Hospitals Global Health Hub with the Winchester Centre for Global Health.
Chris is a Visiting Fellow and the University lead for the Partnerships in Health Information (Phi) programme.