Season 4 Episode 12: Research That Puts Survivors at the Center
About This Episode
Historically, research hasn’t always involved or benefited the population being studied. Dr. Elizabeth Dalgarno, the director and founder of the SHERA Research Group, is a staunch advocate of research that is undertaken by and with the people it concerns rather than “on” them.
In this far-ranging interview, Ruth, David, and Dr. Dalgarno discuss:
SHERA’s research into health effects on survivors of their family court involvement in Brazil and England (spoiler alert: The negative health effects of family court involvement for domestic abuse survivors is significant!)
What practitioners can do differently within the current context of family law environment to improve outcomes for child and adult survivors
How to use research to help improve the social care and family court response to domestic abuse
The need for greater accountability and transparency as it relates to systems that impact survivors
The need for appropriate credentialing, training, and experience for evaluators in the family court context
The need for adequate data on the impacts of family law policies and practices on victim-survivors
The global need for domestic abuse-informed training for lawyers, children’s representatives, and judges around family violence, custody, and access
The SHERA Research Group is a collective of multidisciplinary professionals with over 100 years of cumulative experience working in health inequalities, law, finance, social care and domestic abuse research and support organizations.
Dr. Elizabeth Dalgarno is the director and founder of SHERA Research Group and a lecturer at the University of Manchester, England. Dr. Dalgarno has worked in public and private health and social care for over 20 years and specializes in challenging inequalities and systemic challenges in health and social care. Her work with women who have been through family court focuses on their health-related experiences and the harmful pseudoscience of so-called “parental alienation” and has been featured in the documentary Mums On The Run: Failed By The Family Court.