Tom Parkhouse joined CaHRU in October 2021 as a Research Assistant. He will be working alongside Dr. Coral Sirdifield on a NIHR funded project designed to measure and improve the health and quality of health care for people in contact with probation. The project will involve a systematic review of current practice, as well as survey and focus group data collection from people directly involved in probation, with the aim of developing reliable quality indicators to support healthcare improvements.
Prior to this role, Tom completed a PhD at the University of Sussex, with a project investigating factors that enhance or inhibit the ability of investigative interviewers to generate good quality, useful questions. Initially conducting a large-scale, two-part experiment assessing the efficacy of a specific investigative interview technique, the project later became more methodological in nature. One of the key outcomes of the project was the development of a three-dimensional scale for judging the quality of investigative interview questions, having realised during the project that no such scale currently existed. Tom also completed a Masters in Psychological Research and a BSc in Psychology at the University of Sussex, with dissertation projects focussed on facial mimicry of non-consciously processed visual stimuli.
Tom previously worked at the University of Bath on a project investigating the efficacy of machine learning algorithms to predict individuals’ personality traits from their online behaviour. Before this, he worked for the University of Sussex as a statistician on a cross-cultural project investigating the mental well-being of young carers across Europe, as well as teaching and marking on undergraduate psychology modules.
Community and Health Research Unit
High quality research for quality improvement in health and social care
