STARR Net: STrengths and Assets Research for Refugees: a Network of research and practice professionals

An international collaboration of researchers and practice professionals working with people who have been forcibly displaced
Star Net research group custom graphic of connecting dots and stars
We are an international collaboration of researchers and practice professionals working with people who have been forcibly displaced. Our approach values social capital as essential for health and wellbeing, and we use strengths and assets-based approaches to research and development.

Our aim

To provide a network of support and collaboration to like minded research and practice professionals whose focus is:
  1. to improve and develop interventions for marginalised people and those who have been forcibly displaced. Our interventions aim to enhance the lives of all involved and ultimately improve peoples’ health, wellbeing and social and economic participation and opportunities.
  2. to use a bi-directional deployment focus approach where research is strongly informed by the experiences of those affected or those working on the ground.
Specifically, we focus on:
  • creating equitable and sustainable collaborations between research, practice and the people and communities we work with,
  • developing and sharing experiences, knowledge, and skills,
  • support the advancement of peer-led, community-based approaches through evidence and co-design,
  • not limiting our knowledge base to Westernised systems by valuing a range of knowledge about the body, health, and wellbeing of the people we work with,
  • acknowledging the role of individualism and objectivity in perpetuating social injustice.

Our ethos

We value participatory and emancipatory approaches to research and development which are underpinned by a focus on equity and social justice. We believe that all people should have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life, free from racism, persecution, and prejudice.
Our principles favour approaches which develop the empowerment of people and their communities. We are committed to take a stance of non-judgemental curiosity and with that to self and group reflection based on the need to question our own assumptions, biases and prejudices. We acknowledge the power of all forms of privilege, colonisation and western paternalism and the persistence of all forms of racism, and in particular, the structural racism of higher education and medicine.

Research group members

  • Dr Helen Lloyd

    Dr Helen Lloyd

    Chair, Associate Professor, Refugee Health Research (UK).
  • Dr Veronika Dobler

    Dr Veronika Dobler

    Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and CBT therapist for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. Veronika holds a PhD in Cognitive Neurosciences at University of Cambridge (UK).
  • Sabine Kampmüeller

    Sabine Kampmüeller

    Founder of AFYA, an organisation that works on intercultural health promotion. MSc in International Health and a qualified paediatric nurse. Director of the Evaluation Unit of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Austria (Austria).
  • Victoria Nguyen

    Victoria Nguyen

    Secretary. Psychology student at the University of Plymouth, currently in a placement year assisting both Helen Lloyd and another with their research projects (UK).
  • Victor Rapaso

    Dr Victor Rapaso

    A Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra who holds a PhD in Organisation and Business Organisation and Management in the specialty of Organisations Systems by the University of Coimbra (Portugal).
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    Dr Pedro Gois

    Professor in Sociology and Methodology at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra and Doctor in Sociology. A professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (Portugal).
  • Axel Wolf

    Dr Axel Wolf

    Professor, Senior consultant Anaesthesia (CRNA) and Affiliated researcher at the University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-Centred Care (Sweden).
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    Öncel Naldemirci

    (Sweden)
  • Petra Krenn-Maritz

    Dr Petra Krenn-Maritz

    Paediatrician, Neonatologist and Trauma therapist. Petra has a degree in Public Health and many years of working experience with children, adolescents and their families (Austria).
  • Oula Khattab

    Oula Khattab

    Mental Health Promoter and Trainer for refugee mental health programs in Vienna (Austria).
  • Rebecca Nixdorf

    Rebecca Nixdorf

    Research Associate at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany).
  • Dr Stefan Egglestone

    Dr Stefan Egglestone

    Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham, and the Nottingham Institute of Mental Health (UK).
  • Donna Franklin

    Donna Franklin

    An associate lived experience researcher with a background in clinical and health psychology at the Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham (UK).
  • Wen-Yu Wu

    Dr Wen-Yu Wu

    A postgraduate Researcher at the University of Birmingham and a Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth (UK).
  • Hoayda Darkal

    Dr Hoayda Darkal

    A research fellow at the University of Plymouth, a multidisciplinary researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods (UK).
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    Dr Henry Ascher

    A professor of public health and an associate professor and consultant in paediatrics at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden).

Related publications from group members

Sana Murrani, Helen Lloyd and Ioana-Cristina Popovici (2022) Mapping home, memory and spatial recovery in forced displacement, Social & Cultural Geography.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2022.2055777
Wu, W. (2022). Money In-between the Fields: Performances and Expectations, Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS), 3(1), 40-50. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/25903276-bja10031
Rebecca Nixdorf, Lena Nugent, Rabeea'h Aslam, Sarah Barber, Ashleigh Charles, Lion Gai Meir, Alina Grayzman, Ramona Hiltensperger, Jasmine Kalha, Palak Korde, Rachel Mtei, Jackie Niwemuhwezi, Mary Ramesh, Grace Ryan, Mike Slade, Lisa Wenzel & Candelaria Mahlke (2022) A multi-national peer support intervention: the UPSIDES pilot phase. Advances in Mental Health, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18387357.2021.2020140
Rodriguez, I.M., Dobler, V. Survivors of Hell: Resilience Amongst Unaccompanied Minor Refugees and Implications for Treatment- a Narrative Review. Journ Child Adol Trauma, 14, 559–569 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00385-7
Dobler, V., Nelki, J. Children, Families and Young people. In: Seeking Asylum and Mental Health - A Practical Guide for Professionals. Eds.: Maloney, C. Nelki, J. Summers, A. Cambridge University Press (2022) https://doi.org/10.1017/9781911623977
Ng, F., Ibrahim, N., Franklin, D., Jordan, G., Lewandowski, F., Fang, F., ... & Slade, M. (2021). Post-traumatic growth in psychosis: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMC psychiatry, 21(1), 1-11. https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-021-03614-3
Hui, A., Rennick-Egglestone, S., Franklin, D., Walcott, R., Llewellyn-Beardsley, J., Ng, F., ... & Slade, M. (2021). Institutional injustice: Implications for system transformation emerging from the mental health recovery narratives of people experiencing marginalisation. Plos one, 16(4), e0250367. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250367
McGranahan R, Jakaite J, Edwards A, Rennick-Egglestone S, Slade M, Priebe S Living with Psychosis without Mental Health Services: A Narrative Interview Study. BMJ Open 2021. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045661
Hui A, Rennick-Egglestone S, Franklin D, Walcott R, Llewellyn-Beardsley J, Ng F, Roe J, Yeo C, Deakin E, Brydges S, Moran P, McGranahan R, Pollock K, Thornicroft G, Slade M. Institutional injustice: implications for system transformation emerging from the mental health recovery narratives of people experiencing marginalization. PLoS ONE 16(4):e0250367, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250367
Pearson M, Rennick-Egglestone S, Winship G. The poetic wavelength – A narrative interview study exploring the potential of poetry to support meaning making and recovery following psychosis. Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches, online first 14th September 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2022.2116475