Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno

Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno is the Director and Founder of SHERA and SHERA's Research and Development Lead.

Elizabeth has worked in public and private health and social care for over 20 years and specialises in challenging inequalities and systemic challenges in health and social care. Her work centres always around vulnerable and/or marginalised groups. She is a staunch advocate of co-designed, developed and conducted research, where research is undertaken by and with the people it concerns, rather than 'on' them.

She teaches Global Women's Health and Health System Challenges in Low and Middle-Income Countries, through a complex adaptive system (CAS) lens, on the Master's in Public Health at The University of Manchester (amongst other roles) and has special interests in adult social care, the health and trauma impacts and experiences of women and children who are victim-survivors of abuse, family court experiences and health impacts, gender-based violence, domestic abuse/violence, coercive control and post-separation abuse.

She provides training and consultation to schools, domestic abuse organisations, local authorities, health and social care services and other interested groups.

Her work with the SHERA group - in partnership with UCL, Brunel University, Durham University, CPI Voz Materna and The Survivor Family Network - on women and child victims health experiences of family court and the harmful pseudoscience of so-called 'parental alienation', has featured in a documentary 'Mums on the Run' on the BBC iplayer, BBC News, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Woman's Hour, Times Radio.

Fo those outside the UK, you can access the documentary here.

Her work also features in The Daily Mail and the Telegraph. A summary of the research can be found here.

Her work has been presented globally, including to the French Secretary of State for Children and the 53rd United Nations Human Rights Council.

Her work also features within the United Nations Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences report to the Human Rights Council on: Custody, violence against women and violence against children.

She has worked on several National Institute of Health and Care Research projects.

She has led projects for the NHS to develop best practice in learning from adverse events / incidents and advises domestic abuse organisations, global sexual health organisations, NHS organisations and pilot studies such as IRISi ADViSE regarding gender-based violence and domestic abuse/violence.

She is currently advising on evaluating the Greater Manchester IRISi ADViSE pilot. The ADViSE (Assessing for Domestic Violence and Abuse in Sexual Health Environments) programme supports sexual health clinicians to identify and respond to women affected by domestic violence and abuse (DVA) and provides them with a simple referral pathway to specialist services.

She is leading several projects currently including: exploring the impact of Covid-19 on patients, families and professionals, exploring the impact of Covid-19 on informal carers and people living with dementia and exploring the mental health impact of family court proceedings on mothers exposed to perpetrator abusive behaviours / domestic abuse/violence in the UK and Brazil.

She is an ambassador to Right to Equality, a project team member at FiLiA Hague Mothers, a member of the Safe in Faith Committee and the National Board of Catholic Women VAWG Committee.