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Dr Helena King

Profile summary

  • Lecturer in Management and Health
  • The Faculty of Business & Law
  • Department for Public Leadership & Social Enterprise
  • helena.king

Professional biography

Helena is a Lecturer in Management and Health in the Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise (PuLSE), within the Open University Business School.   Her PhD, post-doc and UKRI-funded internship were in the area of environmental psychology, applying the Ecosystem Service approach.  Following this she worked in the third sector gaining experience in health and social care practice and frontline community services.   Roles included a partnerships manager in a regional hospice supporting children and adults with life limiting conditions, a senior manager in a social enterprise helping people experiencing homelessness, and consultancy for a charity supporting people living with HIV.   In these roles she co-designed projects with practitioners, applied for grant and corporate funding, monitored project impacts and wrote reports for public sector and philanthropic funders.   Helena returned to higher education in 2017 as a project manager in the Faculty of Business and Law with diverse responsibilities including research portfolio and funding pipeline management, data collection, textual output creation, webdesign, direction/production of videos, event management and evidence into practice activities.  She has been a lecturer since 2019, in PuLSE and the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care.           

Research interests

Helena is a medical sociologist interested the socio-environmental determinants of health, in particular:

  • Self-management of health
  • Health stigma in organised settings
  • Intersectoral healthcare (e.g. charity-delivered services, social prescribing)

Her interdiscplinary research explores links between social and geospatial environments and individual health, and how society can enable individuals to undertake activities which maintain and/or rebuild health.   'Health' is understood biopsychosocially, to the reflect the physicality of so-called mental health, and evidence which shows the interconnectedness of all bodily systems.   Helena's projects have investigated the psychosocial health benefits of engaging with nature, social land-use practices which improve wellbeing, the management of HIV as a complex part socially-constructed condition, the impact of health stigma on help-seeking, and peer-led healthcare for marginalised groups.   She is currently principle investigator on a study exploring the functions of policing occupational health charities, is part of a team producing psychological care guidelines for people living with HIV, and is assisting with the NICHE social prescribing and health coaching study.

Helena is a member of the following research networks: 

Psychology of Health and Wellbeing 

The Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership 

Centre for Policing Research and Learning 

Teaching interests

Helena has a Post-Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Following face-to-face teaching duties at Cranfield University, she now creates blended and online distance learning for the OU.  This incorporates creating of text (web and book), audio and video content and digital interactives.  She has been a module lead on the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship and created curriculum on vulnerability, multiagency working and public protection.  On secondment to the Faculty of Wellbeing Education and Languages she developed curriculum on physical and mental health linkages, health stigma and the biopsychosocial approach, and led a Teaching Excellence Framework project to design wellbeing resources for students.  Helena is now embedded in the Faculty of Business and Law working on the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship and creating curriculum for the new MSc HRM dissertation module.

Current teaching:

  • BXY130 Professional practice (BA (Hons) Management Practice)
  • B894 Dissertation (MSc Human Resource Management)

Past teaching

  • K240/3 Mental health and society (BA (Hons) Health and Social Care; Foundation Degree Healthcare Practice)
  • K314 Approaches to mental health (BA (Hons) Social Work; BSc (Hon) Public Health & Wellbeing)
  • BXY132 Concepts and theories in policing (BSc (Hons) Professional Policing Practice)

Publications

Prevalence of HIV in mental health service users: a retrospective cohort study. (2023)
Heslin, Margaret; Jewell, Amelia; Croxford, Sara; Chau, Cuong; Smith, Shubulade; Pittrof, Rudiger; Covshoff, Elana; Sullivan, Ann; Delpech, Valerie; Brown, Alison; King, Helena; Kakaiya, Mina; Campbell, Lucy; Hughes, Elizabeth and Stewart, Robert
BMJ Open, 13, Article e067337(4)

The importance of landscape characteristics for the delivery of cultural ecosystem services (2018-01-15)
Ridding, Lucy E; Redhead, John W; Oliver, Tom H; Schmucki, Reto; McGinlay, James; Graves, Anil R; Morris, Joe; Bradbury, Richard B; King, Helen and Bullock, James M
Journal of Environmental Management, 206 (pp. 1145-1154)

Biodiversity and cultural ecosystem benefits in lowland landscapes in southern England (2017-11)
King, Helen; Morris, Joe; Graves, Anil; Bradbury, Richard B.; McGinlay, James and Bullock, James M.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 53 (185 - 197)

Working with nature (2013-07)
King, Helena
The magazine of the Mineral Products Association, 13(7) (pp. 8-9)

HiVitality Retreats: an effective peer-led intervention for empowering adults living with HIV (2023-06)
King, Helena and Witney, Thomas
In : The 15th AIDSImpact Conference 2023 (12-14 Jun 2023, Stockholm, Sweden)

Addressing the impacts of internalised stigma (2021-12)
King, Helena and Witney, Thomas
In : Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference (1-2 Dec 2021, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)

Charity sector wellbeing support for UK police (2021)
King, Helena; Harrison, Virginia and Pike, Graham
In : Conference of the Association of European Qualitative Researchers in Psychology 2020 (EQuiP) (16-19 Jun 2021, Online)

Discourse, the shaping of environments and cultivation of the self (2021)
King, Helena
In : Conference of the Association of European Qualitative Researchers in Psychology (16-19 Jun 2021, Online)

Emergency Responders Mental Health & Wellbeing Project (2020)
Sharp, Marie-Louise; Harrison, Virginia; Soloman, Noa; King, Helen; Fear, Nicola and Pike, Graham
In : Emergency Responders Research Symposium: Mental Health & Wellbeing (30 Jan 2020, London)

Exploring charity sector wellbeing support for police (2019-09-10)
King, Helen; Harrison, Virginia and Pike, Graham
In : 2019 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference: A civil society for the future: setting the agenda for the voluntary sector and volunteering research in the 2020s (10-11 Sep 2019, Aston University, Birmingham, UK)

Developing a methodology for cultural ecosystem services research (2014)
King, Helena; Stojanovic, Tim and Church, Andrew
In : 2014 BESS Science Meeting (1-2 Apr 2014, York, UK)

Biodiversity and Cultural Ecosystem Service Indicators Workshop (2013-06)
King, Helena and Graves, Anil
In : EKN Cultural Ecosystem Services Conference (1-2 Jul 2013, Exeter, UK)

Woodland freedoms and individualism: nature situated self-development as a precursor to Cultural Service creation (2011)
King, Helena and Burgess, Paul
In : Woods and Forests in British Society:progress in research and practice (13-15 Apr 2010, Edinburgh, UK) (pp. 9-24)

The therapeutic impact of HiVitality retreats (2022-10)
King, H. P.
The Open University

HIV Stigma (2022-06)
The Open University, ; King, Helena and Hudson, Andrew
The Open University, OU Connect.

Shiellah's story - Amazing People Living with HIV (2022-06)
The Open University, ; King, Helena and Hudson, Andrew
The Open University, OU Connect.

Mel's story - Amazing People Living with HIV (2022-06)
The Open University, ; King, Helena and Hudson, Andrew
The Open University, OU Connect.

Maurice's Story - Amazing People Living with HIV (2022-06)
The Open University, ; King, Helena and Hudson, Andrew
The Open University, OU Connect.

Assessing the mental health and wellbeing of the Emergency Responder community in the UK (2020-06)
Sharp, Marie-Louise; Harrison, Virginia; Solomon, Noa; Fear, Nicola; King, Helen and Pike, Graham
Open University and Kings College London, London.

A glimpse into the realm of police wellbeing charities (2020-01)
King, Helen; Harrison, Virginia and Pike, Graham
The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Implementing the Transformation of Police Learning and Development. Dream: the vision for the project. (2018-07)
Centre for Policing Research and Learning, ; King, Helena and Hartley, Jean
The Open University Business School

Implementing the Transformation of Police Learning and Development. Deliver: the outcomes of the project. (2018-07)
Centre for Policing Research and Learning, ; King, Helena and Hartley, Jean
The Open University Business School

Implementing the Transformation of Police Learning and Development. Design: the approach taken by the project. (2018-07)
Centre for Policing Research and Learning, ; King, Helena and Hartley, Jean
The Open University Business School

Implementing the Transformation of Police Learning and Development. Dialogue: engaging with the project. (2018-07)
Centre for Policing Research and Learning, ; King, Helena and Hartley, Jean
The Open University Business School

What On Earth Are Cultural Ecosystem Services? (2014-06)
King, Helena
Wessex Bess

Introducing an Ecosystem Approach to Quarry Restoration (2013-07)
King, Helen
Cranfield University