Alfonso Pezzella is Lecturer in Mental Health at Middlesex University. Alfonso joined Middlesex University in 2012 and currently works in Department of Mental Health, Social Work and Integrative Medicine within the School of Health and Education.
Alfonso teaches on a variety of topics including research methods, SPSS, mental health, LGBT+ issues and transcultural issues in health.
Alfonso is currently leading on a European project (IENE 9). The aims of the project are to develop teaching and learning tools to be used by health and social care educators/trainers in order to improve their own knowledge and confidence in teaching LGBT+ issues, to develop the knowledge of health and social care professionals on how to support LGBT+ patients and meet their healthcare needs and to produce best practice guides on how to develop an LGBT+ inclusive curriculum.
You can find out more about the project, visit http://www.iene-lgbt.com.
Alfonso is chair of Sexuality and the Social Work International Interest Group. The group encourages international collaborations in social work research, education and practice developments in the field of gender, sexuality, sexual identity and LGBT+ issues.
Alfonso is also the secretary of the European Transcultural Nursing Association (ETNA).
Alfonso has a professional Twitter feed @AlfPezzella where he enjoys bringing the community together and discussing topics regarding mental health, LGBT, psychology and education. You can also follow Alfonso on ResearchGate for his latest publications.
Qualifications
Membership of Professional Bodies
English (Fluent)
Italian (Mother tongue)
Spanish (Conversational)
Programme Leadership
Module Leadership
Taught modules
Teaching Interests
Alfonso is currently working and leading on a large-scale european project funded by Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership, along with six other European countries. The project, Developing a culturally competent and compassionate LGBT+ curriculum in health and social care education aims to enhance knowledge and raise awareness of LGBT+ issues to enable health educators to develop teaching tools to support the inclusion of LGBT+ issues within health and social care curricula. (IENE 9)
Alfonso is also working on a number of small scale projects on LGBT+ issues in health and social care and BAME studies.
Research interests
Urek, Mojca and Buitenkamp, Charlotte and Hafford-Letchfield, Trish and Higgins, Agnes and Keogh, Brian and Lewis-Brooke, Sarah and Pezzella, Alfonso and Rabelink, Irma and van der Vaart, Nina and Jurček, Anže (2022) "Teta, s kom si ti lezbijka?" Z izobraževanjem proti nevidnosti LGBT starih ljudi v socialni in zdravstveni oskrbi (English) »Auntie, with whom are you lesbian?« – With education against the invisibility of LGBT old people in social and health care. Socialno delo , 61 (1). pp. 7-26. ISSN 0352-7956
Baiocco, Roberto and Pezzella, Alfonso and Pistella, Jessica and Kouta, Christiana and Rousou, Elena and Rocamora-Perez, Patricia and López-Liria, Remedios and Dudau, Victor and Doru, Ana Maria and Kuckert-Wöstheinrich, Andrea and Ziegler, Sabine and Nielsen, Dorthe and Bay, Laila Twisttmann and Papadopoulos, Irena (2022) LGBT Training needs for health and social care professionals: a cross-cultural comparison among seven European countries. Sexuality Research and Social Policy , 19 (1). pp. 22-36. ISSN 1868-9884
Pezzella, Alfonso and Pistella, Jessica and Baiocco, Roberto and Kouta, Christiana and Rocamora-Perez, Patricia and Nielsen, Dorthe and Kuckert-Wöstheinrich, Andrea and Dudau, Victor and Papadopoulos, Irena (2022) IENE 9 project: developing a culturally competent and compassionate LGBT curriculum in health and social care education. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health . ISSN 1935-9705
Gleeson, Helen and Pezzella, Alfonso and Rahman, Nida (2021) Learning to become evidence based social workers: student views on research education and implementation in practice. Social Work Education . ISSN 0261-5479 (Published online first)
Pezzella, Alfonso (2021) Culturally competent and compassionate LGBTQ inclusive healthcare. In: South East LGBTQ Big Tent Learning Event, Royal College of Nursing, 09 Jul 2021, United Kingdom (Online).
European Grants Awards
Small-scale grants
Grant awarded to Pezzella, A., Foley, L. and Dadzie, L.
Middlesex University
October 2016 – July 2017;
MADD – Making a Difference through Diversity
Principal Investigator
Grant awarded to Pezzella, A. and Papadopoulos, I.
Middlesex University
April 2016 – July 2015;
Cultural competence and LGBT
Principal Investigator
Professional Roles and Activities
Other Professional Practice and KT Activities
Alfonso is the lead organiser for KT seminars in the Department of Mental Health, Social Work and Integrative Medicine, where he organises monthly evening seminar to disseminate the research undertaken in the department and involve colleagues from other disciplines, students and the local community.
