Dual expert carers
Overview
Older people living with frailty often experience uncertainty about how their health will change over time, making it difficult to ensure they get the right help at the right time. Family carers have been identified as important for accessing and organising this help.
This study has two aims. The first is to understand dual expert family carers’ experiences and consequent decision-making processes at a point of change in the condition of an older person living with frailty. The second aim is to facilitate the co-design of a set of guiding principles by participants, to inform a prototype tool for family carers to assist decision-making. This involved participants taking part in one-to-one interviews followed by participation in a facilitated online focus group.
If you wish to find out more about this study, please contact Richard Green.
Study team
Professor Caroline Nicholson
Professor of Palliative Care and Ageing
Biography
Caroline is a Clinical Academic Nurse and her research forwards understanding and care for older people living with complex needs. She is particularly interested in the transitions that occurs in the last phase of life. Caroline qualified as a Registered Nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital London. She worked as a specialist Palliative Care Nurse before undertaking a combined BSc (Hons) in Community Nursing DN/HV Certs at King’s College London. She went on to an MSc in Medical Anthropology at Brunel University London before completing her PhD at City University, London in 2009. She is a FHEA from the Institute of Education and holds a diploma in psycho-dynamic approaches to old age from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London
Caroline is a HEE/NIHR Senior Clinical Academic Lecturer, working between the School of Health Sciences at Surrey University and St Christopher’s Hospice, London. She is passionate in her belief that everyone should have access to the best care and support in the final years of their life. She has a long-held interest in the experiences and palliative care needs of older people and their families and is co-lead in End of life Care for the British Geriatrics Society.
Caroline studies the experiences and care of older people living with complex needs across care settings, to develop interventions which equally value quality of life with quantity of years in old age. She has a long-held interest in the experience of older people living with frailty, and their capabilities as well as their current and future vulnerabilities. Her work also includes the development of care services and a workforce that can recognize, facilitate and enhance the processes and outcomes of high-quality palliative and supportive care. Caroline is committed to building the next generation of clinical academics and is an NIHR Nurse Training Advocate . Research expertise includes participatory action research, narrative research, mixed method research and complex intervention development.
Dr Richard Green
Surrey Future Fellow
Biography
Richard was awarded a prestigious Surrey Future Fellowship in April 2023 to work with interdisciplinary colleagues from the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI and across the university develop a programme of research on the use of 'carebots' (chatbots and other artificial technologies) to support the health and wellbeing of older adults. Prior to this role, Richard was working as a Research Fellow project managing The PALLUP Study - Improving home based palliative care for frail elders and his current fellowship continues and extends his research into the health and wellbeing of older adults in later life.
Richard completed a BSc in Criminology and Sociology at Royal Holloway University and then an MSc in Social Research Methods at the University of Surrey, before completing his PhD in Sociology in partnership with both universities on an ESRC studentship. Before joining the PALLUP study, he worked at the Office for National Statistics as a Senior Research Officer, working on facilitating research access to secure data for research serving the public good.
Richard's PhD explored men's experiences following treatment for prostate cancer in a qualitative interviewing study. His primary research interests fit within the social study of health and illness, with particular interests in themes including ageing, intersectionality, chronic illness and multimorbidity, and digital technologies. He welcomes contact about his research and from those interested in pursuing doctoral study.