Dr Jenelle Clarke

Overview

Biography

Dr Jenelle Clarke is a health and social care sociologist whose research involves the exploration of everyday experiences of delivering and receiving health and mental health care, health and care system leadership, applying sociological theory to health improvement sciences, and improving coproduced healthcare initiatives.  

Jenelle is leading a project, ‘The Rituals of Integrated Working’, on integrated health and social care funded by The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute (Sept 2020 – May 2026).  Using the micosociological theory of interaction ritual chains, the study explores improvement initiatives within multi-disciplinary and integrated health and social care teams. It looks at what happens when different agencies, such as health and social care, join up to coordinate care around patient needs. The study asks what it is like to deliver and receive joined up care, and explores how different groups of people come to trust each other and work collaboratively.  This ethnographic project aims to produce learning on partnership working to improve integrated care services.

Jenelle also does consulting work for the NHS Confederation on Integrated Care System leadership, exploring system leadership with leaders of Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships.  She is also a research consultant for The Microsystem Academy, based in the USA, on how cystic fibrosis and lung transplant teams coordinate care and sustain partnership working.  

Prior the THIS project, Jenelle was a co-collaborator and research fellow on a NIHR funded grant, ‘Healthcare Leadership with Political Astuteness (HeLPA): a qualitative study of how service leaders understand and mediate the ‘politics and power’ of major health system change’, looking at the organisational politics involved in major health system change.  She also has experience of working within the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research Care (CLAHRC) East Midlands to understand how health research initiatives are coproduced and implemented within clinical practice.  Jenelle has been involved in research work related to therapeutic environments, including therapeutic communities, and initiatives to improve social care services.   

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Nottingham, 2015
• Methods of Social Research (MA) (Distinction), University of Kent, 2012

Administrative responsibilities

• Programme Director, Health and Social Care

Professional activities

Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities.

Associate Editor for the Mental Health Review Journal. 

Consultant Researcher with the NHS Confederation on Integrated Care System leadership. 

Research consultant for The Microsystem Academy, based in the USA, on how cystic fibrosis and lung transplant teams coordinate care and sustain partnership working.   

The Consortium for Therapeutic Communities Board Member 

Professional memberships

• British Sociological Association 

ORCID

0000-0002-2061-9287

Research

Research interests

• Sociology of health/mental health
• Integrated working
• Health system leadership
• Healthcare organisation
• Healthcare improvement
• Experiences of healthcare/delivery
• Interaction rituals
• Sociology of emotion
• Qualitative methodologies

Research overview

Jenelle's research is broadly within health/mental health, health organisation, health system leadership, integrated working, public sector working, and their interface with culture, transformation and identity.  She is currently leading a project funded by The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute that explores everyday experiences of integrated working. Comprising four linked ethnographic work packages, the study will provide theoretical and practical insight for delivering patient-centred integrated care.  Key goals include: identifying patterns of social interaction facilitating trust and respect, developing an integrated working framework; generating a measure of emotional energy and co-producing learning resources for integrated teams and service users/carers.
 
She has experience using sociological theories applied to health and mental health care. Through the use of interaction ritual theory within mental health during her doctoral work, Jenelle showed how negative feelings within groups of people may still produce trust and solidarity.  In her post-doctoral work, she developed a new model of successful research co-production highlighting the importance of relational and emotional inclusivity.  Within mental health, she has looked at initiatives within therapeutic communities and social care environments.  She worked with colleagues to expand theories of political astuteness through an NIHR grant exploring interpersonal politics and public sector change initiatives.   She is leading evaluation work on system leadership within Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships. 
 
More generally, she has research interests related to theories of microsociology applied to health and mental health, healthcare improvement initiatives and interaction rituals. 

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Jenelle is interested in supervising Master’s and/or PhD student work related to her research interests on the sociology of health/mental health, integrated working, healthcare organisation, healthcare improvement initiatives, interaction rituals, sociology of emotion, and projects using qualitative methodologies.  

Teaching

Jenelle is the Programme Director for all Health and Social Care programmes.  She currently is the module convenor for Introducing Health and Social Care.

Teaching modules

• Crossing Borders (SSSS001S3)
• Introducing Health and Social Care (SSSS003S4)