Research Interests

My research interests centre on palliative and end of life care and bereavement. In particular, I am interested in how services are organised and in the experiences of those who commission, manage, deliver and use them. My PhD explored continuity of care for people with advanced cancer and examined some of the tensions that exist between the policy rhetoric and actuality of service utilisation. I have a professional background in community-based services as a palliative care social worker, which drives my interest in psychosocial care towards the end of life.

In January 2019, I began work on a new EU (Horizon 2020) study led by a Greek team. MyPal: Fostering Palliative Care of Adults and Children with Cancer through Advanced Patient Reported Outcome Systems, is studying advanced information and communication technologies to improve patient/professional ‘closed-loop’ feedback with an overall aim of improving quality of life and a more integrated, patient-centred interface between people living with cancer and the professionals involved in their care. I co-lead the dissemination work stream for this study with Prof Sheila Payne.

In March 2019 I completed a 2.5 year project as Principal Investigator on an Action Research study examining the development of a new model of end of life care – Cottage Hospice – in collaboration with a hospice in the south of England. Papers arising from the results of this study are in preparation.

Between 2013 and 2016 I was involved in a pan European, FP7 funded mixed methods study (InSup-C) examining best practice in integrated palliative care in advanced cancer and chronic disease. Data for InSup-C were collected using qualitative, semi-structured interviews with patients and carers, and group interviews with a range of professionals involved in care management and delivery. These data were augmented with PROMS questionnaires: POS, CANHELP Lite and with the Carer Reaction Assessment Scale. We also used a patient weekly diary over three months to capture the frequency of contact and the patient perception of the quality of the professional interventions they were exposed to. Qualitiative data were analysed thematically and descriptive statistics used to analyse quantitative data. A number of papers and presentations arising from this study are listed in my research outputs.

In addition to the above, I have on-going interests in bereavement including such questions as: how is this assessed, how do we identify and respond to prolonged grief, what are the most effective interventions for bereaved people and how should these be delivered? I am also interested in the specific palliative and end of life care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people.

I have experience and expertise in qualitative case study and mixed methods approaches, and have additional interests in action research and grounded theory.

Current Teaching

I am a lecturer in Palliative Care in the International Observatory on End of Life Care. I teach on the blended learning PhD programme and co-convene DHR517: Palliative Care: History, Policy and Practice and DHR515: Philosophy of Research.

I co-supervise 10 students on the blended learning PhD in Palliative Care. Their research studies include: the experiences of families of those near the end of life who can no longer drink; what influences referral to paediatric palliative care by oncologists and haematologists; expressing end of life care preferences in a Nigerian context; and the experiences and support needs of direct social care workers in Scotland. I have supervised five students to completion of their PhD.

Additional Information

I am Admissions Tutor for the blended learning PhD in Palliative Care.

I am a reviewer for a number of journals in the palliative and end of life care field.

I am on the advisory panel for the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Social Work Task Force

I am a memeber of the EAPC Task Force on ‘Improving palliative and end of life care for LGBT+ people’