Dr Cathy Ure
School of Health & Society
Current positions
Lecturer
Biography
Cathy joined the University of Salford in 2017. She has completed first degrees in both History and Psychology; and Masters in Management Learning and Media Psychology. She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. She gained a Graduate Teaching Studentship to complete a PhD at the University of Salford. Her thesis was entitled: ‘Living with and beyond breast cancer: Exploring women’s use of social media to support psychosocial health’. Her PhD and current research interests focus on capability building to improve health outcomes in ‘on’ and ‘offline’ communities.
Cathy has been involved in a wide range of research projects that have drawn on her qualitative methods knowledge and skills. For example, she has worked as a Research Project Manager on an NIHR-funded stepped-wedge randomised control trial (2017-2022) entitled: Evaluation of the Communities in Charge of Alcohol (CICA) Programme in Greater Manchester http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN81942890 led by Professor Penny Cook (University of Salford). This study aimed to provide vital evidence for local authorities planning community action on alcohol through training volunteers to become ‘alcohol health champions’ (AHCs). AHCs were trained to provide brief interventions at an individual level and become involved in alcohol licensing decisions to reduce the availability of alcohol at a community level. She is currently working in partnership with Wigan Council to determine whether a bottom-up approach involving the community to co-design solutions and co-evaluate outcomes is effective in creating safer communities.
Cathy has also worked with local organisations to evaluate services including third sector organisations (e.g., The Bureau, Glossop) and interventions. For example: Cooper-Ryan, AM and Ure, CM (2018), Making Every Contact Count: Evaluation of the use of MECC within the outpatient MSK Physiotherapy service and Bury Integrated MSK Service at Fairfield General Hospital.
Cathy has supervised one international PhD to completion. Yanni Wu’s PhD by Published Works focuses on: ‘Exploring psychological distress and expressive writing in Chinese breast cancer patients’, supervised with Professor Alison Brettle (University of Salford). She also supervises Sisary Kheng's ‘Social Enterprise applications to support financing strategies for the sustainability of Prosthetic and Orthotic Services in Cambodia’, supervised with Professor Malcolm Granat (University of Salford) and Professor Cheryl Metcalf (University of Southampton) and Hadijat Ige's ‘Experiences of pregnant women to support maternal health outcomes using mobile pregnancy applications in Nigeria’, supervised with Dr Anna Cooper-Ryan (University of Salford).
Areas of Research
Public health , Social media, Digital health, Asset based community development, Visual methods, Qualitative
Cathy is a module leader on the Public Health Practitioner Degree Apprenticeship and MSc in Public Health programmes. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Qualifications
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Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
2021 - 2022 -
PhD
2014 - 2018 -
MSc in Media Psychology
2012 - 2014 -
Diploma in Psychology (conversion for postgraduates giving the Graduate Basis for Registration)
2009 - 2011 -
MA in Management Learning
1992 - 1994
Publications
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How can communities influence alcohol licensing at a local level? Licensing Officers’ perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to sustaining engagement in a volunteer-led alcohol harm reduction approach
Ure, C., Burns, E., Hargreaves, S., Hidajat, M., Coffey, M., de Vocht, F., …Cook, P. (2021). How can communities influence alcohol licensing at a local level? Licensing Officers’ perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to sustaining engagement in a volunteer-led alcohol harm reduction approach. International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103412
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Exploring strategies for using Social Media to self-manage health care when living with and beyond breast cancer : in-depth qualitative study
Ure, C., Cooper-Ryan, A., Condie, J., & Galpin, A. (2020). Exploring strategies for using Social Media to self-manage health care when living with and beyond breast cancer : in-depth qualitative study. JMIR, 22(5), e16902. https://doi.org/10.2196/16902
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An asset-based community development approach to reducing alcohol harm : exploring barriers and facilitators to community mobilisation at initial implementation stage
Ure, C., Hargreaves, S., Burns, E., Coffey, M., Audrey, S., Ardern, K., & Cook, P. (2021). An asset-based community development approach to reducing alcohol harm : exploring barriers and facilitators to community mobilisation at initial implementation stage. Health and Place, 68, 102504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102504
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Exploring breast cancer bloggers’ lived experiences of ‘survivorship’ : the ethics of gaining access, analysing discourse and fulfilling academic requirements
Ure, C. (2018). Exploring breast cancer bloggers’ lived experiences of ‘survivorship’ : the ethics of gaining access, analysing discourse and fulfilling academic requirements. In C. Costa, & J. Condie (Eds.), Doing Research In and On the Digital : research methods across fields of inquiry (66-82). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315561622-5