Senior Research Fellows Rebecca Brown and César Palacios González have been awarded OPEN Fellowships in the latest funding round, enabling them to work closely with new policy partners and bring philosophy and policy together for the improvement of public health. More information on these projects will be shared as the projects develop.
We are very grateful to the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) for supporting this work.
Embedding ethics in public health policy and practice
Rebecca Brown and Oxfordshire County Council
This Fellowship will enable Brown and the OCC to develop a mutually-improved understanding of the philosophy and ethics of public health in a practical policy setting. Brown's placement within OCC will enable her to work directly with Council staff, fostering a better understanding of the practical aspects of public health promotion and communications at the local level, and enabling her to ensure her research on public health ethics is sensitive to the realities of public health practice. It will also support reflection upon the ethical appropriateness of Oxfordshire County Council’s current public health activities, with particular focus on their public health communications.
Obstetric violence in the Mexican context
César Palacios González and Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE)
Obstetric violence is defined as “the violation of integrity [which] occurs in the context of antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care”. A recent mixed-methods systematic review of childbirth in health facilities globally found that women in labour have been subject to violence in many forms, including being gagged, beaten, insulted, and tied to the bed. Eradicating obstetric violence globally is of critical concern, and this is even more so where other types of injustices (e.g. racial discrimination) compound the phenomenon. This Fellowship will enable Palacios González to work with the NGO GIRE, building on his existing network of Mexican healthcare practitioners and policy makers, to investigate and develop methodologies for the reduction of obstetric violence in Mexico.
