The messy realities of qualitative health research

Qualitative research is a naturalistic mode of inquiry. It is used to answer a variety of research questions that have relevance to health policy and practice. In this podcast, Dr Anne-Marie Boylan, Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Qualitative Health Research Methods at the University of Oxford, and Dr Laura Griffith, a former academic who now works in public health, explore the value of qualitative health research and discuss what it's really like to undertake qualitative research.

Speaker biography
Dr Laura Griffith completed her PhD in Anthropology about Motherhood in the East End in 2006 completing research in London and Bangladesh. During this time she also worked as a consultant and was the Chair of the Management Board for Sure Start and actively involved in other public health projects. From there she started as a Research Fellow in Warwick as the PI for a project investigating the experiences of minority ethnic populations of acute psychiatric services. Next was leading a project at Aston University about multi-professional team working in Mental Health teams, and from there she moved to the Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford, where she completed modules on psychosis, giving up smoking and experiences of ECT for the renowned healthtalk.org. She went on to lecture at the University of Birmingham in the sociology of health, and led the Health and Well-being stream in the Institute for Research into Superdiversity. At Birmingham she left the academic side of health research and moved into health consultancy - normally working with partners from the third sector. She now works in public health. Date: 18 May 2021