Research Profile

BA (Hons),P.G.Diploma, M.Med.Sci, PhD, RMN

Jacqueline Parkes is the Professor of Applied Mental Health in the Faculty of Health, Education & Society at the University of Northampton.

Jackie is an experienced mental health nurse, and has worked in a broad range of mental health and learning disability settings prior to moving into Higher Education. She is the Lead of the Northamptonshire Dementia Research & Innovation Centre at UoN and lead for Public and Patient Involvement.  Her subject specialisms are nursing and mental health research, with a particular focus on developing and implementing person-centred care pathways.  She works extensively with local organisations to evaluate their provision of health and social care services, including community-based interventions for people living with dementia. She is the Chair of the Northamptonshire Dementia Action Alliance and is a member of the Leicestershire Dementia Action Alliance.

Jackie has also established four community-based social groups for people with dementia; the Forget-me-nots Social YOD Group, Qualified by Experience (QBE) for former carers, and the Post-diagnostic Support UnityDEM Centre  in Northamptonshire and the Lutterworth Share & Care Group for people with dementia and their carers in South Leicestershire. She has a particular interest in young onset dementia, and has been a lead on the Alzheimer’s Society Angela Project (2016-19) looking at diagnostic accuracy and post-diagnostic support for young people with dementia; and is currently the Deputy Chair of Research at Young Dementia Network. She is also a member of the pan European Group InterDEM.

Her responsibilities within this role include leading and co-ordinating the research strategy across all branches of the nursing and midwifery academic teams. Completed funded research projects have evaluated local service provision in school nursing, and district nursing, and the perceived health needs of young people across the county. She has also completed three further none funded pieces of research within the School, which have explored the student nurses perception of the nursing practitioner’s role in rehabilitation healthcare, an evaluation of the newly developed graduate mental health worker role, and as part of a consultation process with academic staff exploring their perception communication processes within the institution. Her conference presentations have included women and self-harm, cultural aspects of mental health care, the evaluation of new roles and ways of working in mental health care, and pedagogical research. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, and has published  a book chapter on ‘Psychological Health’ in ‘Health Needs Assessment’. Ed A. Crouch & C. Meurier (2005).

In her consultancy role, she has recently been successful in securing a regional bid for ‘Sectoral Lead for Health & Social Care’ from the ‘Lifelong learning Network for Sustainable Communities’ at the University of Leicester. She is also a member of the Regional Personality Disorder Steering Group, and the Heath and Criminal Justice Steering Group.