Dr Felicity Thomas

Dr Felicity Thomas

Senior Research Fellow

Expertise

Social Science; Ethnography; Narrative and Participatory Methods; Health Inequalities; Migration

Biography

My research uses narrative, ethnographic and participatory approaches to examine the ways that people experience health and illness and make decisions over treatment use. I am particularly interested in understanding how health 'conditions' become medicalised, and the ways this inter-relates with poverty, disadvantage and health-related inequalities. I currently run an ESRC-funded project (DE-STRESS) examining how moral narratives relating to responsibility and welfare reform influence the medicalisation of distress and the uptake of antidepressants in low-income communities in the South West. I am also involved in a WHO-led project to improve health care for migrants through the promotion of intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity within public health systems.