Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Public Health
- Epidemiology & Public Health
- Institute of Epidemiology & Health
- Faculty of Pop Health Sciences
Serena is an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow at the UCL Collaborative Centre for Inclusion Health in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Serena is also an Honorary Consultant in Public Health at University College London Hospital and a Public Health Fellow for the Pathway charity. Serena became a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health after completing the London Public Health Training Scheme in 2017 (UKPHR FR0875). Serena is originally from Canada, where she completed an MSc in Epidemiology in 2007 from McGill University and a BSc in Biology (Distinction) in 2004 from the University of Victoria.




Serena's research aims to prevent and redress the health consequences of deep social exclusion, a discipline known as Inclusion Health. Her work focuses on understanding the health needs of people with experiences of homelessness, substance use disorder, imprisonment, and sex work and developing practical, evidence-based solutions to addressing those needs.
Her PhD research is funded by an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship. It is examining how hospitals can help to deliver preventative interventions to people experiencing homelessness. This is important because people experiencing homelessness often face barriers to accessing primary care and preventative health services in the community and therefore have high hospital care usage. Best practice in homeless healthcare is to 'meet people where they're at', whether on the streets or in an A&E waiting room or hospital bed. Too often, people experiencing homelessness are discharged from hospital without appropropriate accommodation in place and without having their wider health and social care needs addressed. This can result in a vicious cycle of homelessness, ill-health, and hospitalisations. Serena's PhD aims to develop new evidence and tools to support hospitals to better understand the needs of their homeless patients and to deliver evidence-based prevention, such as identification and recording of homelessness, referral to case management and/or specialist integrated care, assistance with housing and other social needs, screening, treatment initiation and referrals for chronic conditions, addictions, and infectious diseases, vaccinations, and discharge planning to appropriate housing or intermediate care facilities.
Serena's research employs mixed methods, including both quantitative epidemiology and qualitative methodologies. She is also very interested in engaging people with lived experience of social exclusion in research and service design and has developed innovative methods for conducting patient and public involvement workshops with these groups.
Serena led the development of the first UK MSc module in Homeless and Inclusion Health in partnership with the Pathway charity. This module is offered as an optional module on the UCL MSc in Population Health, or as a standalone course (for UCL credit or continuing professional development). The module welcomes all students, regardless of background, with an interest in homeless and inclusion health. In past years, course participants have included MSc and PhD students from UCL and other universities, nurses, doctors, public health professionals, housing support workers, charity sector workers, civil servants, and people with lived experience of homelessness and/or exclusion. For more information, please see the course webpage https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology-health-care/study/short-courses/homeless-and-inclusion-health
Serena has provided numerous ad hoc teaching and training sessions to post-graduate students, medical students, public health registrars, GP registrars, service providers, and charities. She is happy to be approached for teaching opportunities. Serena also welcomes prospective students and public health registrars to contact her for information regarding the Homeless and Inclusion Module, MSc dissertations, and research training projects.
01-JUN-2017 | Clinical Research Fellow/Honorary Consultant Public Health | Epidemiology and Public Health | University College London, United Kingdom |