Public policy and care provision

MICRA’s research on public policy and care provision considers:

  • Population ageing and demography
  • Health and social policy
  • Health economics
  • Long-term care
  • Social work

Our researchers in this area include:

Professor David Challis

Professor David Challis is Director of the Manchester branch of the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) and Professor of Community Care research. The PSSRU’s mission is to conduct high quality research on social and health care to inform policy, practice and theory. The PSSRU receives core funding for five-year programmes of work from the Department of Health.

Dr Brenda Gannon

Dr Brenda Gannon is a health economist. Her research looks into the health economics of ageing and analysing longitudinal datasets including the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Brenda studies the determinants of health and health inequalities among the older population. She is interested in how dementia impacts on healthcare resources. She also look at the impact of health on work decisions and how social capital interacts with an individual's health before and after retirement age. Brenda aims to provide relevant recommendations for current health policy in an ageing economy both globally and in the UK.

Dr Arpana Verma

Dr Arpana Verma is Director of the Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health Centre for Epidemiology (MUCH) which is within the Institute of Population Health in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. MUCH's mission is to perform world-class research, applicable to populations locally, nationally and globally. MUCH’s flagship project was a 4 and a half year European Commission’s Framework Programme 7 grant comparing Urban Health Indicators across Europe and beyond. The population was stratified to include data specific to the ageing population.

MUCH has secured an EU grant of £600,000 focusing on public health interventions for healthy ageing in cities. MUCH will work closely with MICRA and the project includes 13 partners in 6 European countries. Dr. Verma is also President of the European Public Health Association Urban Health Section and responsible for the organisation of several high profile public health conferences which have had a focus on ageing including the Annual Festivals of Public Health UK and the 11th International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH 2014) which will be taking place between 4th and 7th March 2014