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Psychosocial Health innovation field

We conduct innovative research to promote equitable opportunities in health and care. Our focus lies on people within their social environments and their interactions with professionals and organisations in the healthcare system.

We understand psychosocial health as a complex phenomenon situated between  individual life worlds and broader social systems. People interact with the healthcare system based on their needs, life histories, social networks and societal positions. Our research examines how service and care users engage with nursing professionals and healthcare institutions. We consider health to be a public, communal, and global good in line with the principles of planetary health and aim to contribute to equitable and resource-sensitive access to health and care. 

Research topics

Our research topics in the Innovation Field Psychosocial Health are: 

  • Diversity, inequality and health equity 

  • Settings and interfaces that are difficult to explore through research 

  • Health promotion in everyday life-worlds and social contexts 

  • Areas of care facing innovation pressure or driven by innovation 

Projects

  • The Global Hospital

    This collaborative international research project seeks to offer a novel conceptualisation of hospitals as gendered, globalised spaces of more-than-medical labour and knowledge.

    • Institute(s) Nursing
    • Research unit(s) Field of Innovation – Psychosocial Health
    • Head of project Julia Rehsmann

  • Parenting in Precarity (PiP)

    Parenting in Precarity explores parenthood and psychosocial health in the context of a precarious residential status, which (in)formal support services affected persons utilize, and what this means for...

    • Institute(s) Nursing
    • Research unit(s) Field of Innovation – Psychosocial Health
    • Head of project Sabrina Laimbacher

  • (in)visible

    Precarious residential conditions are associated with omnipresent burdens such as lack of prospects, family separation, marginalization, or fear of deportation, and can negatively impact the mental health of...

    • Institute(s) Nursing
    • Research unit(s) Field of Innovation – Psychosocial Health
    • Head of project Sabrina Gröble
      Sabrina Laimbacher

  • Toolkit Screening and Follow-up Loneliness

    For the programme ‘connect! - Less lonely together', a toolkit is being developed that will make it possible to identify loneliness at various interfaces in the health and social care system and to recommend...

    • Institute(s) Nursing
    • Research unit(s) Field of Innovation – Psychosocial Health
    • Head of project Eva Soom Ammann

  • Caring about Diversities

    Dealing with diversity in nursing care is challenging, despite well-established concepts of professional competence. The SNSF-funded project 'Caring about Diversities' focuses on everyday practice in...

    • Research unit(s) Nursing
    • Head of project Prof. Dr. Eva Soom Ammann

  • Born Green Generation - Delivering toxic-free healthcare

    Aims to protect the environment and vulnerable groups in maternity, neonatal, and paediatric wards: Healthcare students will learn why and how to reduce healthcare’s use of plastics and toxic chemicals,...

    • Institute(s) Nursing
      Kompetenzzentrum Interprofessionalität
    • Research unit(s) Field of Innovation – Psychosocial Health
    • Head of project Tannys Helfer

    • Partnerships

    • Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern 

    • Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG) , University of Bern 

    • Department of Migration Studies, University of St. Gallen 

    • Zurich University of the Arts 

    • Medical Anthropology Switzerland 
    • University Centre for Palliative Care, Inselspital Bern University Hospital 
    • Palliative Care Unit, Zurich City Hospital 
    • Medizinsammlung, Inselspital Bern 
    • Institut für Pflegewissenschaft, Universität Wien 
    • Health Matters research group, Universität Wien 
    • Health Care Without Harm Europe 

    • IMISCOE Standing Committee Families, Welfare, Care and the Life Course 

    • Participatory Approaches with Older Adults Network (PAAR-Net)

    Publications