Hélio Manhica

Hélio Manhica

Lecturer

Lecturer in the nursing programme at KI and researcher in social epidemiology focusing on migration, youth mental health and health inequalities

Telephone: +46852485305
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels Allé 23, D2, Flemingsberg, 14183 Huddinge
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 Omvårdnad Omv enhet 2, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a university lecturer at Karolinska Institutet with expertise in social epidemiology, migration and mental health. I completed my PhD at Stockholm University in 2017, focusing on mental health, substance misuse and labour‑market participation among teenage refugees, and later worked as a postdoctoral researcher within the EPiCSS group at KI, studying NEET trajectories, psychiatric disorders and Substance use Disorders among young adults. I have held teaching roles across several institutions, including Sophiahemmet University and the Swedish Red Cross University College, and have served as Managing Editor for the European Journal of Public Health. I publish widely on youth mental health, substance use, poverty and health inequalities, and co‑supervise PhD students in Tanzania focusing on cancer care and patient experiences

Research

  • I am a researcher in social epidemiology with a focus on how early‑life adversity, migration, poverty and family‑related factors shape mental health, substance use and labour‑market outcomes in young people. My work combines large‑scale Swedish register‑based cohort studies with a focus on NEET trajectories, psychiatric disorders, drug use disorders and health inequalities. I am also engaged in refugee and migrant health research, youth development and the long‑term impacts of socio‑economic disadvantage. In addition, I collaborate internationally on projects in Tanzania examining cancer care, patient experiences, quality of life and health‑system challenge.

Teaching

  • I have extensive teaching experience across several academic institutions, including Karolinska Institutet, Sophiahemmet University, and the Swedish Red Cross University College. I have been involved in multiple courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, serving as a lecturer as well as a course leader. My teaching has primarily focused on Public Health Science, research methods, migration and health, care science and nursing‑related subjects. 

    At KI, I served as course leader for the doctoral course Migration and Health at the Department of Public Health Sciences, where I was responsible for course planning, delivery and examination. I have also taught extensively as a university lecturer at Sophiahemmet University and contributed to education at the Swedish Red Cross University College, where I coordinated and taught courses in research methods in nursing. My academic teaching is supported by formal training in higher education pedagogy from Karolinska Institutet

Articles

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Grants

Employments

  • Lecturer, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2024-
  • Lecturer, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2025-2026

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