Health Psychology and Participatory Research: Empowering Communities to Address Health Inequalities

Event details

Speaker(s): Professor Judith Eberhardt

Judith Eberhardt is Professor of Psychology and Public Health Equity at Teesside University. Her research addresses health inequalities through participatory approaches in health psychology and public health. Her work spans cancer screening, vaccine hesitancy, and long-term conditions, with a strong emphasis on marginalised and minoritised populations, co-production, and lived experience. In this talk, she will show how involving communities as partners rather than subjects can generate more relevant, trusted, and sustainable interventions. Examples will be drawn from projects on early prostate cancer diagnosis among Black men (PROCAN-B), health screening uptake through faith-placed interventions (EQUITA), NHS Health Checks uptake and vaccine hesitancy in underserved communities, and peer advocacy for people with multiple complex needs. Together, this body of work illustrates how health psychology can contribute to tackling inequalities and shaping system-level change when research is conducted with, not on, communities.