Dr Sandra Carlisle
Sandra Carlisle was born in Wallasey in 1954 but did not get around to going to university until 1990. As a mature student at Keele University she studied English language and literature, and medical social anthropology and sociology: the latter led to a life-long love of research in this field. Over the years since then she has been involved in numerous health- and policy-related research and evaluation projects, in both academic and voluntary sector settings across the nations of the UK.
At the Tayside Centre for General Practice in Dundee she conducted an ethnographic study of GP home visits to older patients, in order to provide a better understanding of the complexities involved in such care. She then moved to Inverness, to work with the Princess Royal Highland Carers Project on a lottery-funded study exploring the nature of informal community support available to carers across the Highland region. Cardiff followed, with an evaluation of the Primary Care Development Project for the Welsh Government, based the Department of Education for General Practice. Wanting to gain a PhD before old age really set in, she then took up an ESRC studentship with Edinburgh University’s Public Health Department. Next came a return to Keele University, and four years fieldwork in Wales, evaluating the Welsh Assembly Government’s community-based Sustainable Health Action Research Programme.
In February 2006 she joined the Public Health Section of Glasgow University to work with Phil Hanlon on a three year research project investigating the influence of ‘modern culture’ on our well-being. That study, funded initially by the National Programme for Improving Mental Health & Well-being in Scotland, led to the development of this website, where we hope to share our findings and insights with the public health community and others. The Culture and Well-being study has strong links with the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the Centre for Confidence and Well-being.