Staff profile
staff list 
Ms Vanessa Abrahamson
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Job title: Senior Lecturer
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Dept: Allied Health Professions
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Tel: 01227 782321
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Campus: Canterbury
I recently joined CCCU as a senior lecturer on the Occupational Therapy (OT) team. Prior to joining the University I completed an MSc Public Health and then carried out a two year qualitative study within the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL (2007-09).
Prior to this I worked as an occupational therapist in a variety of clinical settings in England, New Zealand, South Africa and Tanzania. In recent years I specialized in working with adults who had experienced an acquired or traumatic brain injury. This included developing and running a multi-disciplinary clinic for people who had post-concussional syndrome.
I am particularly interested in health (and health care) inequalities and how they continue to persist despite all efforts to the contrary. I believe occupational therapists are ideally suited to challenge such inequalities through health promoting initiatives as part of their daily work; my MSc dissertation evaluated the role of occupational therapists in this area with particular reference to adults who had experienced a stroke.
Recent Publications
Abrahamson, V. & Raine, R. (2009) Health and social care responses to the Department of Health Heatwave Plan. Journal of Public Health, Advance Access published on 20 June, 2009; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdp059.
Abrahamson, V., Wolf, J., Lorenzoni, I. et al. (2009) Perceptions of heatwave risks to health: interview-based study of older people. Journal of Public Health 31(1):119-26.
Wolf, J., Adger, W.N., Lorenzoni, I., Abrahamson, V., Raine, R. (2009) Social capital, individual responses to heatwaves and climate change adaptation: an empirical study of two UK cities. Global Environmental Change. Advance Access published on 28 October 2009. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.09.004|
Wolf, J., Lorenzoni, I., Few, R., Abrahamson, V., Raine, R. (2009) 'Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: vulnerability and responses to heat waves in the UK', in Adger, N., Lorenzoni, I., O'Brien, K. (eds) Adapting to climate change: thresholds, values, governance. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 181-196.
Abrahamson, V. (2007) Occupational therapy post stroke. (Rapid response). British Medical Journal. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/335/7626/922#179185 |