Job Description, Duties and Person Specification

Job Description, Duties and Person Specification

Public Health Interventions Officer - Loneliness

Salary Scale: £33,114 - £42,219

Duration: 18 Months Full Time

Location: Belfast

Job Purpose

The Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing at Ulster University and the Institute of Public Health in Ireland are working together to identify the most effective interventions to address loneliness among older people. This post will be based between both organisations and aims to help inform the identification and design of effective Public Health interventions to address loneliness and to effectively measure the outcomes of these interventions.

Duties

To undertake a systematic review of the literature on the area of loneliness interventions.
To explore methodologies for understanding lonelinessacross the life cycle and within different populations.
To assess both health professionals' and wider societal understanding of lonelinessusing qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
To appraise the level of stigma that is associated with loneliness across the life cycle and within different populations.
To develop an evaluation model to assess policy and services in the area of loneliness across the lifecycle.
To explore and provide analysis and commentary on data sets that are relevant to understanding loneliness across the lifecycle including NICOLA, TILDA, Growing up in Ireland, Bio Bank.
To explore the risk factors for loneliness especially the linkages between loneliness and depression, association and disassociation.
To develop and facilitate collaborative partnerships in the area of loneliness across Ireland, the UK, Europe and internationally.
To prepare material for publication in international academic journals and presentations at international conferences.
To prepare funding proposals / applications to major external bodies.
Co-ordinate and plan meetings and seminars.

PERSON SPECIFICATION – Public Health Interventions Officer – Loneliness

Essential Criteria

Desirable Criteria

Qualifications

Hold PhD in relevant discipline (A, B)

Hold Public Health Qualification (A, B)

Experience

At least 3 years’ recent research experience and skills relevant to this project (A, B, C)
Proven breadth and depth of specialist experience and knowledge in mixed research methods (A, B, C)
Good presentation and publication track record (A, B, C)

Previous research on loneliness (A, B)
Grant submission experience (A, B)

Skills & Knowledge

Excellent IT skills e.g. Microsoft Office suite (A, B, C)
Excellent inter-personal skills (A, B)
Excellent oral and written communication skills (A, B, C)
Evidence of ability to deal competently with administrative tasks (A, B, C)
Evidence of ability to write reports (A, B)
Clear and confident communicator (A, B, C)
Ability to give formal presentations (A, B, C)

Proven ability to participate in or initiate collaborative research (A, B)
Background in Public Health (A, B)

Personal

High degree of organisational ability, self-motivation, ability to meet tight deadlines and work flexibly, independently and on own initiative (A, B)

The A, B, C codes identified in this specification indicate the format from where each criteria will be assessed i.e. the application form, interview, practical exercise or all three.

The format for each code is identified below.

A – Application FormB – InterviewC – Practical Exercise

Should it be necessary, we reserve the right to increase the essential and/or the desirable criteria at the Shortlisting stage.

For those applicants that meet all the essential criteria please note there will be a practical assessment to progress to interview.