Professor Catherine Walshe
ProfessorResearch Overview
My research expertise is in palliative and end of life care. I have two main research interests: the way that palliative care is provided especially within primary and community care settings; and the experience of symptoms at the end of life. Current or recent projects the impact of COVID-19 on palliative care (2020-2021), the experiences of those receiving immunotherapy (2022-24), establishing a palliative care research network across NWC England (2021-23), the NIHR funded Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit (2024-2026), and Horizon Europe funded projects I-CLEAR (2024-2028) and In-Touch (2024-2028) . I am also interested in research methods and dissemination, and edit the journal 'Palliative Medicine'.
Current Research
Current and recent projects include:
- Horizon Europe funded ICLEAR exploring a new intervention for those with advanced COPD with Prof Nancy Preston, led by colleagues from VUB in Belgium, and with a pan-European Consortia.
- Horizon Europe funded In-Touch exploring care for those with advanced dementia with Prof Nancy Preston and led from colleagues at University College Cork, with a pan-European consortia.
- The NIHR funded Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit with with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from King's College London and Hull/York Medical School.
- Developing a palliative care network across NWC England funded by NIHR with colleagues from Universities and clinical organisations across North West Coast.
- Exploring the experience of receiving immunotherapy for those with advanced cancer (NWCR) led by Prof Sarah Brearley
- CovPall: Understanding the response of specialist palliative care services to COVID-19 with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from King's College, London.
- mySUPPORT: implementing a comfort care booklet for people with dementia in nursing care homes (funded by Alzheimer's Society) with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from Queens University, Belfast.
- Two evaluations of enhanced community and seven day services across Greater Manchester (funded by Macmillan Cancer Care) led by Dr Sarah Brearley.
- ALTER: evaluating a novel end-of-life care service provided by Age UK (funded by Age UK) with Profs Nancy Preston and Sheila Payne.
- NAMASTE CARE TRIAL: investigating the feasibilty of conducting a trial of Namaste Care with people with advanced dementia in nursing care homes (funded by NIHR HTA) with Prof Katherine Froggatt (PI) and colleagues from Hertfordshire, Liverpool, Bristol.
- CHECC: investigating a new model of cottage hospice care with Hospice in the Weald. with Dr Sean Hughes (PI), Dr Mary Turner and Dr Helen Barnes.
- ELSA: End of Life Social Action Project; investigating the effectiveness of social action projects to influence people's quality of life (funded by the Cabinet Office) with Prof. Sheila Payne, Dr Nancy Preston, Dr Guillermo Perez Algorta, Dr Steve Dodd and Nick Ockenden and Matt Hill (Institute for Volunteering Research).
- PACT: A feasibility trial of a peer mentor intervention for those with advanced cancer with Dr Diane Roberts (University of Manchester) in collaboration with Linda Appleton (Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology), Dr Lynn Calman (Southampton University), Mr Paul Large (User representative), Prof Mari Lloyd-Williams (University of Liverpool), Prof Gunn Grande (University of Manchester), Prof Suzanne Skevington (University of Manchester).
- I also supervise a number of PhD students following a traditional route PhD and on the PhD in Palliative Care programme.
Research Interests
Providing excellent and appropriate care at the end of life is critically important not only to those with life-limiting illness, but also to informal and professional carers. This is a major issue, as it is estimated that around 63% of those who die will require palliative care at some stage during their illness. Research into all aspects of palliative care provision is vitally important, to provide appropriate evidence to support care decisions. Whilst there has been research in this field for a number of years now, there are still many unanswered questions as the evidence base remains small, possibly as a result of the poor funding in this area, and the need to develop research capacity. Within the International Observatory on End of Life Care we focus on a number of different areas of research which contribute to developing this evidence base: researching the needs of older people, symptom management, evaluating service models, and our overarching theme of developing research methods to investigate end of life care.
Current Teaching
This year I am teaching on DHR403 our research design and ethics module, well as ad hoc sessions to our blended learning PhD programme.
Additional Information
I am a Professor of Palliative Care and Co-Director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care, part of the Division of Health Research. I am also Editor in Chief of the journal ‘Palliative Medicine’. This is one of the premier journals in the field, and is an international multi-disciplinary journal. Palliative Medicine is the research journal of the European Association of Palliative Care. I am a fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute.
PhD Supervision Interests
I am interested in supervising students in the areas of palliative and supportive care, with a particular interest in primary care, models of palliative care provision, care homes and volunteers. I am happy to support applications for externally funded fellowships.
Horizon Europe : In-Touch: Implementation of a palliative care iNtervention To imprOve QUality of people with advanced dementia in Care Homes
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2028
Research
Horizon Europe: Stepped wedge trial of a palliative care intervention for patients with COPD
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2028
Research
NIHR Policy Research Unit for Palliative and End of Life Care
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2026
Research
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (CRN NWC) Funding Award 2023/24
01/07/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (CRN NWC) Strategic Funding Award 2023/24
01/07/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (NIHR CRN NWC) Funding Award 2024/5 (Apr-Sep24)
01/07/2023 → 30/09/2024
Research
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (NIHR CRN NWC) Strategic Funding Award 2024/5 (Apr-Sep24)
01/07/2023 → 30/09/2024
Research
Mapping illness trajectories for people with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy treatment: a mixed methods study to identify something about need and health service input?
01/04/2022 → 31/03/2025
Research
Developing palliative and end-of-life care research partnerships and capacity in the North West Coast of England
01/01/2022 → 30/06/2023
Research
CRN: Palliative and End of Life Care Research Partnerships
01/07/2021 → 31/08/2021
Research
Rapid evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic response by palliative and end of life care: national delivery, workforce and symptom management (CovPall)
20/04/2020 → 19/04/2021
Research
NIHR ARC NWC - LCCG Cash Match
01/10/2019 → 30/09/2024
Research
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast
01/10/2019 → 31/03/2026
Research
Manchester Macmillan Supportive and Palliative Care Programme
29/05/2019 → 30/06/2021
Research
Scaling up the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention: A transnational effectiveness-implementation evaluation
01/04/2019 → 31/03/2022
Research
To evaluate the Macmillan 7-day Specialist Palliative Care Advice and Assessment Programme, Greater Manchester
30/08/2018 → 07/09/2020
Research
Tender: To evaluate the Age UK End of Life Pathfinder
09/10/2017 → 31/03/2019
Research
The Namaste Care intervention to improve the quality of dying for people with advanced dementia living in care homes: A realist review and feasibility study for a cluster randomised controlled trial
01/12/2016 → 31/03/2019
Research
Using participatory action research to advance hospice care
01/11/2016 → 31/03/2019
Research
Peer support to maintain psychological wellbeing in people with advanced cancer: A feasibility study for a Randomised Controlled Trial.
05/10/2015 → 04/10/2018
Research
Evaluation End of Life EoL Social Action Fund
06/11/2014 → 30/06/2016
Research
Immunotherapy and Palliative Care Trajectories (IMPACT): a mixed methods study mapping illness trajectories for people with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy treatment to identify palliative care need.
01/01/1900 → …
Research
Decolonising Palliative Care: Learning from Research Beyond the Global West
Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition
Experiences of living and dying with Lewy body dementia: a longitudinal narrative study.
Oral presentation
The role of palliative care in the public health response to Covid-19
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
International Mental Health Nursing Research Conference
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
NIHR HS & DR Funding Panel (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Palliative Medicine (Journal)
Editorial activity
Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Biomedical
International Observatory on End of Life Care
- International Observatory on End of Life Care