Dr Polly Radcliffe has over twenty years of experience of qualitative research in health and social care that has focused on gender and identity including in the context of substance use treatment, maternity care and mental health care services. Her research has explored the intersectional barriers to care for groups with multiple and complex needs and how multidisciplinary care systems can respond.

Polly led the recently completed NIHR funded Stepping Stones Study, a multi-method study exploring the experience of women who use and are in treatment for using drugs in the perinatal period. She is a co-investigator on the ESRC funded Evaluation of Harm Reduction Services in Simon Community Scotland’s homelessness services. She is a co-investigator and leads the process evaluation for the NIHR funded ADVANCE-DIGITAL in Probation Study, that is a trial of an intervention for men with substance use problems who have received a community sentence for a domestic abuse related offence. She is a co-investigator on two NIHR Invention 4 Innovation studies that explore the application of technology in the continuing care of prison leavers (The PRET Study) and in the transfer from methadone to long-acting naltrexone (Build2Depot study). She was involved in a rapid qualitative study amongst people with experience of rough sleeping in London during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has experience of involving people with lived and living experience in research. She has led teams in accessing and engaging marginalised research participants and is expert in analysing qualitative data using thematic, discourse and narrative analysis.

Workshop: Beyond words: Creative methods in addiction health research

Creative methodologies are increasingly recognised as powerful tools for engaging research participants, eliciting rich data, and amplifying lived experience. However, they remain underutilised within UK addiction health research. This interactive workshop, facilitated by Dr Emma Smith and Dr Polly Radcliffe, aims to address this gap by introducing researchers to the potential of creative approaches in this field.

Drawing on their collaborative work, the facilitators will present examples of creative methodologies in practice. Dr Smith will discuss her use of photovoice with recovery communities and postpartum women who use drugs, highlighting how visual methods can support participant-led storytelling and insight generation. Dr Radcliffe will present on the development of Mum’s Point, a performance piece co-created with the Outside Edge Theatre Company, which translates qualitative research on perinatal substance use into an educational resource for student midwives.

Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own research agendas and consider how creative methodologies might enhance their work. The workshop will also introduce a broader range of creative methodologies, offering participants new perspectives and approaches to consider. Attendees will take part in short creative exercises designed to help them experience these methods from the perspective of a research participant and gain insight into how they can shape data generation and engagement. Key strengths, limitations, and ethical considerations associated with these approaches will be discussed to support thoughtful and appropriate application.

The session aims to build confidence and capacity among addiction researchers to incorporate creative methodologies into their research design and practice.