Dr Melissa Girling

As a social scientist, my research is committed to developing and applying innovative research methods that produces knowledge about how health and social problems are understood in vulnerable populations. My research interests are informed by social science theory and are both academically focused as well as grounded in ‘real’ service development and innovation. 

Over the past 20 years I have been involved in a number of research and evaluation projects in the UK and New Zealand that have provided timely and on-going responses to mental health, at-risk youth, substance use, and criminal justice issues through developing and implementing monitoring and outcome measures, assessing the health and social impact of these issues on individuals and groups, and providing appropriate recommendations for positive outcomes. 

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• A cluster randomised controlled trial, process and economic evaluation of two large-scale quality improvement interventions embedded with a national clinical audit to improve the care for young adults with type 2 diabetes (EQUIPD2): Study protocol, Sykes, M., Finch, T., Girling, M., O'Halloran, E., Medcalf-Bell, R., Foy, R. 8 Dec 2025, In: Implementation Science
• Mechanisms to support interventions involving the police when responding to persons experiencing a mental health crisis: A realist review, Redgate, S., Clibbens, N., Haighton, C., Dalkin, S., Bate, A., Girling, M., McCarthy, S., Eagles, T., Gray, J., McKinnon, I. 10 May 2025, In: Health & Social Care in the Community
• Translational framework for implementation evaluation and research: implementation strategies derived from normalization process theory, May, C., Hillis, A., Albers, B., Desveaux, L., Gilbert, A., Girling, M., Kislov, R., MacFarlane, A., Mair, F., Potthoff, S., Rapley, T., Finch, T. 27 Jul 2025, In: Implementation Science
• ‘For Want of a Nail’: developing a transparent approach to retroduction and early initial programme theory development in a realist evaluation of community end of life care services, McEwan, K., Girling, M., Bate, A., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Dalkin, S. 3 Jul 2024, In: International Journal of Social Research Methodology
• How is tailored implementation undertaken using a self-guided toolkit? Qualitative study of the ItFits-toolkit in the ImpleMentAll project, Finch, T., Potthoff, S., May, C., Girling, M., Perkins, N., Vis, C., Bührmann, L., Etzelmueller, A., van Genugten, C., Schuurmans, J., Piera-Jiménez, J., Rapley, T. 11 Jul 2024, In: Implementation Science
• Systematic review of applications and properties of the NoMAD instrument for assessing implementation outcomes: Study protocol, Finch, T., Bührmann, L., Potthoff, S., May, C., Gibson, B., Gumancik, J., Wilson-Dickson, O., Girling, M., Rapley, T. 17 Sep 2024, In: NIHR Open Research
• A cluster randomised controlled trial, process and economic evaluation of quality improvement collaboratives aligned to a national audit to improve the care for people with diabetes (EQUIPD): Study protocol, Sykes, M., Copsey, B., Finch, T., Meads, D., Farrin, A., McSharry, J., Holman, N., Young, B., Berry, A., Ellis, K., Moreau, L., Willis, T., Alderson, S., Girling, M., O'Halloran, E., Foy, R. 31 Aug 2023, In: Implementation Science
• Towards an Implementation‐STakeholder Engagement Model (I‐STEM) for improving health and social care services, Potthoff, S., Finch, T., Bührmann, L., Etzelmumller, A., van Genugten, C., Girling, M., May, C., Perkins, N., Vis, C., Rapley, T. 1 Oct 2023, In: Health Expectations
• Experience-based co-design (EBCD) with young people who offend: Innovating methodology to reach marginalised groups, Girling, M., Le Couteur, A., Finch, T. 12 Jul 2022, In: PLoS One
• Translational framework for implementation evaluation and research: a normalisation process theory coding manual for qualitative research and instrument development, May, C., Albers, B., Bracher, M., Finch, T., Gilbert, A., Girling, M., Greenwood, K., MacFarlane, A., Mair, F., May, C., Murray, E., Potthoff, S., Rapley, T. Dec 2022, In: Implementation Science

PhD March 20 2019