Stephanie Bramley
Research Associate (Qualitative Methods)
Profile
Biography
Stephanie joined the University of York in August 2020 and has a background in qualitative methods, gambling studies and psychology of music.
Stephanie in conjunction with colleagues at the University of York, Newcastle University and the University of Manchester is currently working on a NIHR ARC National Priority Consortium in Health and Care Inequalities funded project to evaluate the Mental Health Navigator scheme which was set up by Wakefield District Housing in collaboration with a local commissioning group. Stephanie is co-ordinating Work Package 5 – the qualitative implementation and process evaluation.
During August 2020 and February 2022 Stephanie was a Senior Research Fellow at the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub where she led qualitative implementation evaluations of two Better Start Bradford projects: - 1) Breastfeeding Support; 2) The Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting programme (MECSH).
Stephanie is also a co-investigator on a NIHR-funded study to develop a screening question for use by local authorities to identify individuals affected by gambling related harm. This study is being led by King’s College London in collaboration with GamCare and BetKnowMore. Stephanie has also led several studies which investigated the impact of gambling for vulnerable groups in her previous role at the NIHR Policy Research Institute in Health and Social Care Workforce, King’s College London. She also examined the barriers and facilitators for individuals to enter the health and social care workforce.
Stephanie has also worked as a Gambling Support Service Trainer for Calderdale Citizens Advice where she delivered training about gambling-related harm to frontline staff across Yorkshire, The Humber and North Lincolnshire. Prior to that she worked as an Involvement Research Officer for Leeds Involving People. In this role she designed and facilitated involvement opportunities so that vulnerable populations could share their views about health and social care services.
In March 2015 she was awarded her PhD from The University of Sheffield with her thesis ‘Exploring the presence, experience and influence of background music in gambling situations’. As part of her PhD she conducted interviews with casino managers, administered an online questionnaire to gamblers and designed an empirical experiment to test the effects of background music on laboratory virtual roulette gambling behaviour. During her PhD she received a Worldwide Universities Network Research Mobility Programme award and visited the Gambling Treatment Clinic at The University of Sydney where she collaborated with Professor Alex Blaszczynski and Dr Sally Gainsbury.
Qualifications
- PhD – Department of Music, The University of Sheffield
- The Sheffield Teaching Assistant Programme, The University of Sheffield, UK
- MA Psychology of Music - Department of Music - The University of Sheffield
- BA (Hons) Music - Department of Music - University of Leeds
- Counselling Skills Level 2 Certificate - Shipley College
Roles in the Department of Health Sciences
- Co-chair - Contract Researchers Forum
- Co-chair - Qualitative Research Network
Research
Overview
Stephanie’s research interests include investigating the impact of interventions on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable groups, the design and promotion of gambling products and responsible gambling initiatives, gambling amongst vulnerable populations, the impacts of gambling and the barriers and facilitators to accessing gambling support services. Stephanie also conducts research within the field of psychology of music and has also taught music psychology, research methods and study skills at higher education institutions. Stephanie is currently a member of the Royal Northern College of Music Research Ethics Committee.
Projects
- Evaluation of the Mental Health Navigator Scheme: one of five studies funded through the NIHR ARC National Priority Consortium in Health and Care Inequalities
- Can a ‘trigger’ question to identify gambling harms to individuals or affected others be validated and used in three local authority (LA) Adult services departments (ASDs)?: Working with GamCare, the UK's largest gambling support charity, and a team with different research skills and experience of gambling related harm, we were funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) under its Research for Social Care programme to test a question for use in three local authorities. Outputs from the study include free training materials and guidance for adult social care staff, including recommendations for local authorities wishing to amends a question about gambling harms within services.
Research group(s)
Supervision
Stephanie is able to supervise PhD projects with a broad focus on gambling harms, addictive behaviours and the health and social care workforce. Specific areas of interest include service or intervention design, implementation and evaluation and projects involving qualitative methods.
External activities
Memberships
Current
- Qualitative Research Network, Department of Health Sciences, University of York
- Contract Researchers Forum, Department of Health Sciences, University of York
- Research Ethics Committee, Royal Northern College of Music
Previous
- GamCare Women’s Programme Advisory Panel
- Anti-Poverty Events Steering Group, Bradford
- Yorkshire and Humber Regional Assistant Directors of Public Health Problem Gambling Working Group
- Yorkshire and Humber Reducing Gambling Harms – Regional Event Planning Group
Media coverage
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2019/10/31/migrants-are-vulnerable-to-the-harm-paradox-of-problem-gambling-in-the-uk/
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/17/paypal-problem-gamblers-misuse-avoid-bank-limits
- https://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2016/08/london-city-airport-plays-music-security-screening/