Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU)

The Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) is the first university academic unit dedicated specifically to the study of self-care. Imperial SCARU was formally launched at the 19th Annual Self-Care Conference in London in 2017. SCARU’s vision is to be the leading academic base for self-care, focused on the contributions that individuals, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders can make to improve wellbeing, prevent disease, and self-manage existing conditions and so-called ‘diseases of the lifestyle’ including obesity and type 2 diabetes. SCARU’s mission is to make the absolute case for self-care. The Unit will achieve this by identifying and studying the ways in which individuals, communities and existing health and social care infrastructure and assets can improve people’s self-care behaviours and overall sense of mental and physical health wellbeing, addressing opportunities and barriers to self-care in the contemporary setting. SCARU will consider how self-care can be embedded as a cross-cutting theme to inform health systems development and evidence-based policy prescriptions to support the routine adoption of health-seeking behaviours for the benefit of individuals and society throughout the life-course and in different settings.