Senior Research Associate (DR HOPE)

The Centre for Rural Health Sciences is part of the university’s Health, Social Care and Life Sciences subject area that brings together all health researchers and related teaching at UHI.

Based in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, we have a campus in Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands, and in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. We provide accessible, evidence informed education for nurses and other health and social care professionals, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, and are committed to supporting our students to make a significant contribution to the care of patients and the public.

We foster a strong research community locally and build research collaborations nationally and internationally to conduct high quality applied research that improves health and wellbeing within the Highlands and Islands and addressing key health questions relevant to Scotland and beyond. We have expertise in developing novel interventions and evaluating existing health and social care services and have highly experienced researchers and behavioural scientists.

Project
The project aims to test and implement the use of the Trigger Tool and assertive outreach for those at high risk of drug-related harm within the local rural Emergency Department (ED). Additionally, to create and test theories to identify how the Trigger Tool works, for whom, and in what circumstances.

Scotland’s drug death rate of 327 per million population annually is the highest recorded in Europe with Norway being the next largest at 85 per million. Despite incremental improvements over the last few years across Scotland the number of Drug-Related Deaths in the Highlands continues to rise (NRS 2023). Assertive outreach to those most at risk has been shown to have a protective effect within this vulnerable group. Yet, until recently, there was no process to identify and proactively outreach those most at risk. The Caithness Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service undertook some improvement work in 2023 to create, test and implement a Trigger Tool and associated outreach. However, the tool still needs to be implemented within the ED as people who use drugs are frequent attenders due to an increase in ill health and accidents associated with their high-risk behaviour. Also, there have been no studies to identify how the Trigger Tools works, for whom, and in what circumstances. We seek to identify an experienced researcher who can lead the day to day running of the project under the direction of the Project Lead.

Applicants with informal questions are encouraged to contact Dr Michelle Beattie, Senior Lecturer and Project Lead, by email to michelle.beattie@uhi.ac.uk.

Pay and Benefits
This role is linked to grade 6 on the UHI pay scale.

The starting salary for this position will normally be in the range £32,875 to £34,874 per annum.

This post is fixed-term for 12 months until end July 2025 subject to funding. There is no guarantee of further employment after the expiry of this term.

This post is part-time and will involve working 14 hours per week on a working pattern as agreed with your line manager.

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