Invited Speaker
Dr Annahita (Anna) Ehsan
Department of Psychological Medicine and the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King\'s College, London
Certificate of attendance available
Social capital is often considered as beneficial to mental health and has been targeted for community-based health promotion initiatives. However, recent evidence suggests that the relationship between social capital and mental health is more nuanced: social capital can be simultaneously beneficial and detrimental within communities. This presentation will first explore the current scientific knowledge on social capital, social capital interventions, and how they are approached in mental health promotion. It will draw from existing literature and examples from case studies to highlight the complexity of promoting social capital for mental health within specific communities, and how building social capital for some groups may have unintended consequences for others. Overall, it will question how social capital can contribute to and overcome mental health-related inequities, and will conclude by suggesting ways to improve current research and practice.
About the presenter:
Dr. Annahita (Anna) Ehsan is a social scientist who uses multiple and mixed-methods to understand social inequalities and health. She is particularly interested in how social relationships play a role in health promotion, and how community interventions both reduce and reproduce health inequalities. She works directly with existing interventions to improve monitoring and evaluation, and uses integrated knowledge transfer to benefit practice.
About Our Webinar Series
This event is part of our regular webinar sessions for social capital researchers including PhD/master students. These sessions include invited presentations from prominent scholars as well as presentations by PhD students and experts in professional practice.
For social capital researchers, these sessions are an opportunity to hear about the latest social capital research and insights from scholars working on the concept. They can be a great way to connect with people, to get advice, discuss ideas or issues, get suggestions for literature to read, or you can just listen.
Are you researching social capital and want to present your research? Click here for more information and to submit a proposal.
Generally, presentations can be 20 to 30 mins. The content of your presentation will depend on your research stage.
