Caroline Lee is a Senior Research Associate Senior Research with a focus on place-based approaches to supporting community wellbeing.

 

Caroline Lee is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Cambridge Public Health (CPH), with over 20 years’ experience in project and programme evaluation and research across a variety of policy areas, including: public health, mental health, employment, education, and childcare. She favours qualitative and realist approaches and is interested in participatory methods.  

Caroline’s current research includes: studying supermarket’s community-oriented support activities and community wellbeing; evaluating a place-based, co-produced programme to support older people to remain happy at home for longer; and realist-informed studies of co-located community supports to older adults’ mental health and of Local Authority place-based approaches to addressing public health and inequalities in times of austerity (both NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR). Also for SPHR, Caroline completed studies of: the potential of Neighbourhood Planning to contribute to age friendly and wellbeing outcomes for local communities, and attention to ethnicity and migration within applied public health and inequalities research; and review of community-based initiatives in support of mental health of older adults at times of psychosocial stress, and a participatory review of community involvement in place-based decision-making. 

Useful Links

Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership

Follow on Twitter @cazzerlee

Cambridge Public Health

The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme

Public mental health programme

Understanding place-centred public health strategies implemented in a context of financial constraint

Developing age-friendly rural communities

Research Groups

Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership

---

Selected Publications

• Lee C, Hammant C. Corporate social and community-oriented support by UK food retailers: a documentary review and typology of actions towards community wellbeing. Perspect Public Health. 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35506700/
• Lee C, Parker G, Buckner S, Mattocks C, Barnes A, Oliver EJ, Cowan A, Lafortune L. Neighbourhood planning, rural ageing and public health policy in England. Town Planning Review. 2022. doi: 10.3828/tpr.2021.39
• Lee C, Bassam ERW, Kuhn  I. Community-oriented support actions by food retailers and community wellbeing: A systematic scoping review. Public Health 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2021.09.029  
• Lee C, Kuhn I, McGrath M, et al; the NIHR SPHR Public Mental Health Programme. A systematic scoping review of community‐based interventions for the prevention of mental ill‐health and the promotion of mental health in older adults in the UK. Health Soc Care Community. 2021.  doi: 10.1111/hsc.13413
• Duncan F, Baskin C, McGrath M, Coker JF, Lee C, Dykxhoorn J, Adams EA, Gnani S, Lafortune L, Kirkbride JB, Kaner E. Community interventions for improving adult mental health: mapping local policy and practice in England. BMC Public Health. 2021.  doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11741-5p
• McGrath M, Duncan FH, Baskin C, Osborn D, Dykxhoorn J, Kaner EFS, Gnani S, Lafortune L, Lee C, Walters KR, Kirkbride J, Oliver EJ. Effectiveness of community interventions for protecting and promoting the mental health of working-age adults experiencing financial uncertainty: a systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 2021. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-215574
• Baskin C, Duncan FH, McGrath M, Osborn D, Dykxhoorn J, Kaner EFS, Gnani S, Lafortune L, Lee C, Walters KR, Kirkbride J, Oliver EJ.  Community interventions for the mental health of BAME populations: a state of the art review. BMJ Open. 2021. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041102
• Duncan FH, McGrath M, Baskin C, Osborn D, Dykxhoorn J, Kaner EFS, Gnani S, LaFortune L, Lee C, Walters KR, Kirkbride J, Fischer L, Jones O, Pinfold, V, Stansfield J, Oliver EJ. Delivery of community-centred public mental health interventions in diverse areas in England: a mapping study protocol. BMC Public Health. 2020. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037631
• Lee C, Burgess G, Kuhn I, Cowan A, Lafortune L.  The effect of Community Exchange and Time Currency systems on public health and economic outcomes: a systematic review. Public Health. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2019.11.011
• Lee C, Treacy S, Haggith A, Darshana N, Cater F, Kuhn I, Van Bortel T.  A systematic integrative review of programmes addressing the social care needs of older prisoners. BMC Health and Justice. 2019. doi: 10.1186/s40352-019-0090-0
• Lee C, Mellor T, Dilworth-Anderson P, Young T, Brayne C, Lafortune L. Opportunities and challenges in public and community engagement: the connected for cognitive health in later life (CHILL) project. Research Involvement and Engagement. 2018. doi: 10.1186/s40900-018-0127-x
• Lee C. Preparing transition from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS): Evaluating a creative participatory approach. Social Research Practice. 2016. doi: 10.17863/CAM.857
• Lee C, Haggith A, Mann N, Kuhn I, Cater F, Eden B, Van Bortel T. Older prisoners and the Care Act 2014: an examination of policy, practice, and models of social care delivery. Prison Service Journal. 2016. https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/704426

Forthcoming

• Lee, C. From philanthropy to systems-thinking? A theoretical framework for understanding initiatives for community wellbeing by supermarkets. Briefing paper
• Baxter S, Barnes A, Lee C, Mead R, Clowes M. Increasing public participation and influence in local decision-making to address social determinants of health during times of resource constraint: a systematic review examining initiatives and theories. Local Government Studies. (under revision)

Funding and Awards

Complementary research activities, connected with the Fellowship but funded through different research projects, include:

• Cambridge School of Technology Seed Fund 2021 Branching out: A seed for supermarket solutions – food retailer community-focused actions in support of older adults’ wellbeing.
• Cambridge Humanities Research Grant 2021 What is the nature and effect of community interventions for wellbeing by food retailers: Enhancing community voice through co-production and peer research