Prof Sarah-Anne Munoz

Centre for Health Science,
Old Perth Road,
Inverness
IV2 3JH

Available to talk to the media about

Rural Health. Rural mental health. Rural health services research and evaluation. Individual and community wellbeing. Community engagement. Co-production. Participatory research. Relationship between nature, landscape and wellbeing. Rural social enterprise and third sector. Rural geography. Health geography. Rural ageing population. Social prescribing.

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Biography

I am an experienced rural health scholar and have been working in this field for over ten years. I have been awarded a Readership in Rural Health and Wellbeing in recognition of my internationally excellent rural health research. I am a predominantly qualitative researcher with a passion for participatory and action research. A central focus of my work over the last twelve years has been co-production, co-creation and community engagement in the health services arena. I have a sound understanding not only of health policy in this area, but also of methods for co-production (and its monitoring and evaluation), and of the real life experiences of community members and healthcare professionals enacting co-production.

My research has brought a social science and humanities perspective to understanding health and wellbeing challenges, which are too often subject to only a clinical lens. My research team undertakes rural health research relating in particular to issues of community engagement in services design and co-production, social prescribing and non-pharmaceutical interventions.

I have written widely on co-production and community engagement within the health services context. These publications stem from over a decade of participatory and action research that I have led through grant funded and consultancy projects. I have spent large amounts of time over the last twelve years working alongside community members, healthcare professionals and healthcare decision-makers in participatory and action research. I have led large funded research programs in, for example, the use of participatory arts for health services co-design (funded by AHRC), rural community perceptions of primary care services change (funded by Scottish Government) and the co-design of Lyme Disease risk mitigation materials (funded by Robertsons Trust).

I am passionate about the inclusion of community voices and service user experience in both the design and delivery of our rural health and care services.

Current research

Various projects in rural health and social care including community engagement; measuring wellbeing generated by third sector organisations; evaluation of an app for people living with dementia and their carers; evaluation of social prescribing; evaluation of technology enabled rural housing; evaluation of VC peer support for palliative care professionals; co-design of a new respiratory care pathway for NHS Highland.

Research groups and interests

I lead the Division's workstream on co-production and participation. Our work on co-production and participation considers the interactions and communications between service providers, service users, communities and stakeholders in remote and rural areas. The work stream focuses on current issues of importance to remote and rural health and wellbeing.

Selected publications

Munoz, S., Bain, S., F., eds., (in preparation) Mental Health and Wellbeing in Rural Regions (accepted for publication by Taylor and Francis)

Farmer, J., Hill, C., Munoz, S., (2012) Community Co-Production: Social enterprise in remote and rural areas, (Boston: Edward Elgar)

Munoz, S., (2014) ‘Rural Health Geography’ in Cockerham, W., Dingwall, R., Quah, S., R.,, The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Health, Illness, Behaviour and Society (Blackwell)

Munoz, S., Steinerowski, A., (2012) ‘Socially Entrepreneurial Skills and Capabilities in a Rural Community Context’, in Farmer, J., Hill., C., Munoz, S., Community Co-Production: Social Enterprise in Remote and Rural Areas, (Boston: Edward Elgar)

Steinerowski, A., Bradley, S., Munoz, S., Farmer, J., Fielding, S., (2011) ‘Participation for Health and Wellbeing: factors associated with older people’s participation in remote and rural communities’, in Angus, S., Boutsioli, Z., Health Studies: Economic, Management and Policy, (Athens: Athens Institute for Education and Research), pp. 179 – 192

Farmer, J., Munoz, S., Steinerowski, A., Bradley, S., (2011) ‘Participation and Older People’s Wellbeing in Remote and Rural Scotland’, in Le, Q., ed., Health and Wellbeing: a Social and Cultural Perspective (New York: Nova)

Farmer, J., De Cotta, T., Brennan-Horley, C. Kamstra, P., Munoz, S., (2019) ‘Integration and Segregation for Social Enterprise Employees: a relational micro-geography’, Area, accepted and in press

Foster, E., J., Munoz, S., Leslie, S., J., (2018) ‘The personal and community impact of a Scottish Men’s Shed’, Health and Social Care in the Community, 26 (4), pp. 527 – 537

Munoz, S., Macadden, L., Webster, E., Kyle, R., (2017) ‘Embodied, Shifting and Fragile: revealing student nurses’ perceptions of dignity through curriculum co-design’, Social Science and Medicine, 174, pp. 1 – 8

Macaden, L., Kyle, R., Medford, M., Blundell, J., Munoz, S., Webster, E., (2017) ‘Student nurses’ perceptions of dignity in the care of older adults’, British Journal of Nursing, 26 (5), pp. 274 – 280

Farmer, J., De Cotta, T., McKinnon, K., Barraket, J., Munoz, S., Douglas, H., Roy, M., J., (2016) ‘Social enterprise and wellbeing in community life’, Social Enterprise Journal, 12 (2), pp. 235 – 254

Munoz, S., Farmer, J., Winterton, R., Barraket, J., (2015) ‘Social Enterprise as a space of wellbeing: an exploratory case study’, Social Enterprise Journal, 11 (3), pp. 281 – 302.

Farmer, J., Currie, M., Kenny, A., Munoz, S., (2015), ‘An exploration of the longer-term impacts of participation in rural health services design’, Social Science and Medicine, 141, pp. 64 – 71

Nimegeer, A., Farmer, J., Munoz, S., Currie, M., (2015) ‘Community participation for rural healthcare design: description and critique of a method’, Health and Social Care in the Community, 24 (2), pp. 175 – 183

Rushworth, G.,F., Diack, L., MacRobbie, A., Munoz, S., Pfleger, S., Stewart, D., (2015) ‘Access to medicines in remote and rural areas: a survey of residents in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles’, Public Health, 129 (3), pp. 244-251

Munoz, S., Steiner, A., Farmer, J., (2014) ‘Processes of Community-Led Social Enterprise Development: Learning from the Rural Context’, Community Development Journal, 50, pp. 478 – 493