Discrimination and health
Research Team: Lois Orton, Steph Ejegi-Memeh, Daniel Mutanda, Katie Powell, Emma Halliday, Emma Giles, Sangeeta Kalia, Yessica Mestre, Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay
Who's involved: University of Sheffield, University of Exeter, LiLaC, Fuse, Bristol Women’s Voice, Leeds Muslim Youth Forum, Mind Out, Support Northamptonshire, Just For Women, English For Action
April 2025 – March 2027
Background
Discrimination is a profound social injustice that fundamentally affects people’s physical and mental health. People often experience more than one form of discrimination at a time, based on race, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc, and this makes its impacts even more complex. We know that community organisations make great efforts to tackle discrimination. However, this work is often overlooked and there is little sharing of knowledge on the impact that it has on people’s lives.
People’s Health Trust is a national charity working to reduce inequalities. In August 2025, People’s Health Trust launched a major new programme which aims to help local people experiencing discrimination take action and secure positive change that will benefit their health. People’s Health Trust is working with community partners in six towns and cities initially where local people will share their experiences of discrimination and develop an action plan for tackling it. The funding will enable them to develop community-based approaches to bring about change in discriminatory processes experienced at a societal and institutional level (e.g., education, employment).
We are a group of researchers who’ve worked with People’s Health Trust to help shape the design of this funding initiative. We are working with them, and the organisations they are funding, to evaluate the programme. We will examine the extent to which the overarching programme creates understanding of and a reduction in discrimination. We hope to identify good practices that can be shared with a wide range of stakeholders and adopted more widely.
Aim
To work with People’s Health Trust and the funded organisations to evaluate the programme of initiatives, producing knowledge that is transferable and has the potential for a positive impact on understanding and addressing the complex drivers of health inequalities.
Data and methods
We will use a comparative case study approach to understand the context that shapes each funded project and to draw learning across the programme.
To address the programme objectives, we will co-design and employ a suite of data generation tools. These tools will likely include the following types of activity:
- Participatory systems mapping – to develop an understanding of the system in which discrimination manifests to impact health
- Timeline interviews – to help those with lived experience tell their stories
- Focus groups at the beginning and end
- Media and document analysis – to explore how discrimination manifests in organisations and wider society
Public involvement
Public and practice collaborators will be involved in co-producing the research.
Dissemination
Decisions about which outputs to produce and the target audiences will be made collaboratively with key stakeholders. This will ensure the findings are shared in acceptable, engaging and accessible formats to reach the intended audiences. Dissemination will include:
- Academic paper/s
- Infographic or video (or other visual output)
- Conference/presentations
- Knowledge mobilisation event to share findings with interested stakeholders and share learning
