Dr Sandi Dheensa
BSc, MSc, PhD
Current positions
Research Fellow
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
For 15 years, I have co-led interdisciplinary health-related research with healthcare professionals (HCPs), other NHS staff, patients, and their families. My expertise lies in designing and evaluating healthcare-based and multisectoral domestic abuse interventions for underserved groups (e.g., people with addictions/cancer), and leading evidence syntheses and primary research to inform interventions. My methodological expertise is primarily qualitative methods, policy analysis, and survey development.
I lead/led the following projects:
- PRESSURE (with Dr Alison Gregory), and now PHRIDA, about support-seeking and support needs of healthcare professionals who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse themselves.
- A sister project with Dr Gregory and a former medical student, Dr Aimee Wilkinson, exploring domestic abuse, sexual violence and abuse, and childhood maltreatment among medical students.
- CancerDA, a Macmillan Cancer Support-funded project with STADA, which aimed to enhance the cancer workforce response to domestic abuse.
- Recording & Sharing Domestic abuse Information in Healthcare (RASDIH), which led to national good practice recommendations
I also currently work on REPROVIDE, evaluating a domestic abuse perpetrator programme, and a project investigating trauma-informed care in community mental health services. Previously I worked in the following project teams:
- ADVANCE - an evaluation of an intimate partner violence and substance use disorder integrated programme for men.
- HERA - a collaboration between universities in Brazil, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Nepal on improving the healthcare response to domestic abuse.
Since 2012 I have also freelanced as a domestic abuse and sexual violence and abuse researcher, and have conducted service evaluations on:
- a peer support service for young women survivors of sexual violence
- an advocacy service for sexual violence survivors with learning disabilities
- a befriending service for sexual violence survivors with mental health needs
- a healthy relationships service for people aged 16-25 with unstable housing.
I teach on a range of under- and postgraduate units and was the Deputy Lead for Research Methods on the MSc Public Health 2022-3. I co-supervise PhD candidate Satya Shrestha, who has explored the response to domestic abuse in outreach centres around Kathmandu within HERA. I also co-led a mapping of decolonising or decolonising-adjacent work around the University.
My broader interests are in mental health, trauma, and health inequalities. I'm particularly keen to build international research partnerships to foster knowledge exchange. If you would like to talk about collaboration or evaluation for your service, please get in touch.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
R&SDIH: Recording & Sharing Domestic violence/abuse Information in Healthcare
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/01/2020 to 31/07/2020
Advancing theory and treatment approaches for males in substance misuse treatment who perpetrate intimate partner violence (Programme ADVANCE)
Principal Investigator
Role
Researcher
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
18/06/2018 to 31/12/2021
HERA - Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
HERA (Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse) aims to:
Understand how healthcare systems in LMIC can integrate and evaluate interventions for VAW that link with community organisations, and ultimately ensure better…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (THS)Dates
01/04/2017 to 01/11/2021
Publications
Selected publications
16/06/2022Sharing information about domestic violence and abuse in healthcare
BMJ Open
Healthcare Professionals’ Own Experiences of Domestic Violence and Abuse
Trauma, Violence, and Abuse
Recording and sharing information about domestic violence/abuse in the health service
Recording and sharing information about domestic violence/abuse in the health service
Recent publications
24/01/2024Adapting the ADVANCE group program for digitally-supported delivery to reduce intimate partner violence by men in substance use treatment
Frontiers in Psychiatry
A ‘forced holiday’ or ‘no escape route’? Contrasting experiences of survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse during COVID-19
Journal of Gender-Based Violence
Researching Men’s Violence Against Women as Feminist Women Researchers
Violence against Women