Dr Louise Whitehead PhD; DipSW
Course Leader, BA (Hons) Social Work
Summary
I am the Course Leader for the BA in Social Work at Sheffield Hallam. My background is front-line social work with adults, including working in statutory social work teams, as a home manager, and in training and development before moving into Higher Education. My interests are safeguarding adults, loneliness and social isolation, and co-production.
About
I have worked in adult social care since 2001, in both the statutory and third sector. This experience has mostly been in the South Yorkshire region, with some time spent working in Brighton and Hove, before working in Higher Education. I started at Sheffield Hallam University as an associate lecturer, alongside my PhD entitled 'The role of co-production in combating loneliness and social isolation in later life: a case study of the Time to Shine programme'. I joined Sheffield Hallam full-time in 2020, taking over the BA Social Work Course Leader role in 2021.
I am actively engaged in research alongside my Course Leader role and have done projects around making safeguarding personal with Doncaster Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board; and social capital for people on the edge homelessness working with Ben's Centre in Sheffield. My latest work focuses on the links between loneliness and social isolation, and how this may increase risk of abuse or neglect for adults with care and support needs in a post Covid-19 society.
Teaching
Department of Social Work and Social Care and Community Studies
College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences
Publications
Journal articles
Whitehead, L.J. (2023). Exploring the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation in an analysis of Safeguarding Adults Reviews in South Yorkshire. Journal of adult protection. http://doi.org/10.1108/jap-04-2023-0015
Reports
Nelson, P., Whitehead, L., Foggin, J., & Johnson, D. (2019). Making safeguarding personal temperature check. Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University.