About the project
This PhD aims to understand how people living with long-term health conditions (LTCs) can better build resilience to climate change. Working with vulnerable communities the researcher will use individual narratives and real-time momentary analysis to establish how LTCs impact adaptive capabilities during weather extremes.
The project seeks first to find out how climate change (particularly rising temperatures) is having an impact on people living with LTCs in the Southampton area.
The researcher will establish how people with LTCs across different socioeconomic groups and with diverse cultural backgrounds, are being physiologically, socially and emotionally affected by the need to adapt to new environmental conditions.
The PhD researcher will adopt and integrate qualitative methods (e.g., focus groups and individual video diaries/narratives) and quantitative methods (e.g., real-time, ecological momentary analysis) to understand this, under the guidance of a multi-disciplinary supervisory team backed by a range of institutional sources of training, and support within and outside the University (e.g., NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex’s Qualitative Network, Culture and Creativity Policy Network, NHS Making Every Contact Count).
The researcher will undertake community engagement via focus groups and creative workshops to understand the lived experience of the communities concerned.
The results will be communicated to key bodies that have responsibility for managing people with LTCs (e.g., public, health and social care practitioners and Southampton City Council), so that they are equipped to better serve the needs of these communities. Objective and subjective knowledge about this problem will comprise an evidence-base regarding public health adaptation and mitigation needs for LTC communities.
The researcher will not only gain insight into the impacts of climate change on people living with LTCs, but also build experience in more creative means of community engagement and efforts relevant to public health policy.
Additional technical training or support
Applicants will be considered across health sciences, geography, humanities, and public health - training and support will be bespoke.
We will draw on our membership of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex’s Qualitative Network, National Centre for Research Methods, NHS Making Every Contact Count, Culture and Creativity Policy Network, and Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH), as well as involving the student in taught modules (e.g., MSc Critical Inquiry; MSc Social Statistics and Demography).
Support will be provided from Southampton City Council’s Public Health, alongside field-based observations in Southampton’s communities with the lead’s partners, Saints Foundation and Communicare.
Supervisors
As well as Dr James Gavin (lead supervisor), Dr Leire Ambrosio, Professor Dianna Smith and Dr Joan Tumblety from the University of Southampton, you will also receive supervision from Mrs Lynda Bradford.
References
Gkouliaveras V, Kalogiannidis S, Kalfas D, Kontsas S. (2025). Effects of Climate Change on Health and Health Systems: A Systematic Review of Preparedness, Resilience, and Challenges. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 22(2):232. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22020232.
Kalisch R, Köber G, Binder H, Ahrens KF, Basten U, Chmitorz A, et al. (2021). The Frequent Stressor and Mental Health Monitoring-Paradigm: A Proposal for the Operationalization and Measurement of Resilience and the Identification of Resilience Processes in Longitudinal Observational Studies. Front Psychol, 12:710493. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.710493.
Kim GM, Lim JY, Kim EJ, Park S-M. (2019). Resilience of patients with chronic diseases: A systematic review. Health Soc Care Community, 27: 797–807. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12620.
