Trieda SNP 1, 040 11 Košice
The Department of Health Psychology and Research Methodology (DHPRM) is a theoretical department at the Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. It engages not only in research and development activities in the field of health psychology and social epidemiology, but also in knowledge transfer into practice. The DHPRM staff consists of researchers, as well as expert practitioners with various levels of qualification and professional experience from a range of different fields (social psychology, health psychology, economy, public health, and social work). This multidisciplinary nature of the DHPRM research team enables transfer of findings and experience across fields and generations, contributes to establishment of more flexible research capacities, improvement of human potential and serves as an assurance of a long-term sustainability of the DHPRM.
In the DHPRM we concentrate especially on socially and health disadvantaged populations. Particular emphasis is being put on adolescents and marginalized Roma communities. Moreover, we focus on other groups of the population who receive special attention, such as ethnic minorities, groups at risk of poverty and school-aged children with special conditions.
Our department also develops its activities through long-lasting cooperation with the prestigious University Medical Center at the University of Groningen, National University of Ireland in Galway, World Health Organization, Palacky University in Olomouc and Masaryk University in Brno. However, it is the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study and long-term co-editing of the prestigious International Journal of Public Health, what makes us to be an active part of the extensive network of excellent European Universities. Our solid international position in the recent years has become even stronger after launching the cooperation with the Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia and the University of Oxford, UK. DPHRM is currently also in the process of gaining membership in the international research network DIPEx International, which will further expand and strengthen our international activities. The research collaboration with several external researchers and institutions outside the faculty resulted in establishment of the research hub entitled Community Health Research Network (CoHeRenT, www.coherent.sk).
The DHPRM research team has been taking part in numerous projects of the Slovak research agencies (APVV, VEGA), European projects (DG Sanco, FP7), and projects from the structural funds (CEMIO, CEEPM, VIPPA, SODEZZ), and also in preparing and conducting of the Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe projects.
At the faculty, the DHPRM researchers participate in teaching of psychological and socio-epidemiological, economic, and managerial themes and methodology. They also supervise several graduation or dissertation theses. Furthermore, our department partakes in development of research capacities of PhD students and employees from other faculty departments by means of courses or individual consultations (in particular regarding methodology, statistical methods, scientific communication and publishing activities).
At the field of knowledge transfer into practice, our Department acts as an expert advisory body to the Ministry od Education of the Slovak Republic (e.g. working group of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Slovak Republic for the elaboration of a legislative proposal for the definition (and assessment methodology) of segregation in education), Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic (e.g. proposal of the health monitoring system in marginalized Roma communities), Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities (e.g. revision of the Slovak National Strategy for Integration of Roma population in the field of health), national mediation project entitled Healthy Communities (e.g. proposal of evaluation of the project efficiency), but also to the WHO Regional Office for Europe (e.g. transfer of the WHO methods into development of national policies for reduction of health inequalities), International Organization for Migration (consultations with regard to reviewing procedures in Slovakia), and private operators of healthcare facilities in Slovakia (e.g. consultations regarding methods to assess and improve efficiency of their operations).
