The DeepEnd: A Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities Site

Health inequalities are a serious issue facing the United Kingdom. People in socio-economically deprived areas have significantly reduced life expectancy relative to those in more affluent areas and spend a far greater proportion of their life in poor physical and mental health. The Deep End Network is a network of GP surgeries that serve areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Established in Scotland in 2009, it supports GPs and primary care staff working in these communities, sharing best practices, advocating for patients, and working to address complex healthcare problems related to poverty and social inequality.

Led by Jesse Proudfoot, the DeepEnd is one of three core ‘sites’ in the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH). It is a partnership with St Anthony’s Health Centre, a GP practice based in Walker, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Patients in Deep End practices like St Anthony’s present with a range of chronic health problems including chronic pain, substance misuse, mental health, and complex multimorbidities. Working with Dr Jonathan Coates, a GP and key partner in the DRP-MH, the DeepEnd will experiment with creating environments in which complex health problems such as these can be explored in depth. We will do this by creating novel, interdisciplinary spaces for interaction between patients, clinicians, and researchers—spaces that will provide the opportunity for sustained discussion of individual health problems and for developing connections between people with lived experience so that they can learn from one another.

If you have any questions about the work of the Site, or are interested in getting involved, please get in touch with Jesse Proudfoot.

Find out more about the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.