I am a social care researcher with a particular interest in dementia services and inclusive research methods. I began my research career in 2006 with only an undergraduate degree, and studied for my MRes alongside my research job. In 2019 I received an NIHR School for Social Care Research career development award which bought me out a day a week from my Research Fellow role to undertake a PhD in dementia research methods.
Relatively little is known about the practice and implications of using standardised research measures with people living with dementia at different degrees of severity. As many social care service users live with dementia, it is important social care researchers learn more about the ways that dementia symptoms and their progression can affect both the quality (reliability and validity) of quantitative data, and the experiences of research participants.
For my CDA funded PhD I investigated the quantitative data collection encounter from the perspectives of participants living with dementia and research workers administering standardised measures. I also considered the impact of dementia severity, combined with data collection context and questionnaire content, on the types and quality of data collected.
Kate’s research interests include:
Making it easier for people to navigate social care , and the role of ‘navigation capital’ in this.
Services for people with dementia and their families
Inclusive research processes
