SHIP HIT's Dr Jane Meyrick announced as Researcher in Residence at the Bridge SARC

Leading expert on sexual violence and member of our Sexual Health Improvement Health Integration Team (SHIP HIT), Dr Jane Meyrick has won funding to become the Researcher in Residence at the Bridge Sexual Assault and Rape Centre (SARC), in Bristol, match funded from the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board.

The Bridge SARC in Bristol is leading part of an NHS England funded pathfinder project to improve access to therapeutic support for people who have been sexually abused, especially for those with complex care needs in collaboration with SARSAS, Kinergy, Womankind and the Southmead Project.

The Researcher in Residence collaboration builds on previous award-winning co-production work that put patients at the heart of re-designing their care and currently is looking at barriers to care for adults’ survivors with SARSAS (Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support).

The funding will see Jane work with the Bridge one day a month to support the SARC’s research programme. The knowledge generated through this work will improve direct service delivery and inform development of ambitious, grant funded research projects that further increase understanding around how to provide high quality, empowering care for very vulnerable and often socially marginalised patients who have been raped and sexually assaulted.

Jane commented:

“I am thrilled to have won this funding. For us the Researcher in Residence funding will help to formalise the joint work I have already been doing with the Bridge that supports evidence-based practice in this NHS service. We have demonstrated the value of this type of collaboration for both the Bridge and their clients (https://srh.bmj.com/content/49/4/311).

“The team will liaise around a range of research projects and I will be supporting the research work of staff at the Bridge in a way that really captures the benefits of academic practice collaboration that first came about through the SHIP HIT”.

Jane will be talking about co-production with child sexual abuse survivors to improve their experiences of sexual health services at Bristol Health Partners’ Conference on 12 November 2024.