Bereavement, Research & Innovation GroupMeet our members
Sally Paul, Co-chair
Sally is a Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy. Prior to this role she worked as a palliative care social work and children’s bereavement coordinator. Her research focuses on developing community capacity around death, dying and bereavement and this has included working with schools, young people who offend, prisons and community groups. This work has resulted in the development of a death education programme, bereavement training and bereavement policy. Sally’s research predominately focuses on using participatory methods with an emphasis on advancing professional practice and community responses to end-of-life and bereavement experiences.
Nina Vaswani, Co-chair
Nina is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ). Her research has predominantly focused on the bereavement experiences of children and young people involved in offending, highlighting the higher rates of traumatic, multiple and parental bereavement in this vulnerable and marginalised population. Nina is also interested in the ways that these experiences might manifest as physical, emotional and behavioural responses and how they interact with the justice system. Nina’s research has helped to influence both policy and practice across Scotland, especially within the Scottish Prison Service.
Susan Rasmussen
Susan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology. Susan’s research focuses primarily on suicide and self, particularly in the application of theoretical models to enhance our understanding of the aetiology of suicidal behaviours and psychological well-being across the lifespan. She is involved in a number of projects relating to suicidal behaviour including examining the link between bullying and suicide in young people, the link between sleep and suicidal behaviours in young people, suicidal behaviours in young sexual and gender minority groups, and social norms relating to suicidal behaviours. Susan was involved in developing a cross-Faculty interdisciplinary research proposal focused on public mental health in adolescence.
Judy Furnivall
Judy is a consultant and lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. She originally worked as a practitioner and manager in therapeutic residential child care for young people. Her particular interests include, self-harm and suicide, the impact of trauma and neglect on children’s development and what factors can increase their resilience. She is currently undertaking a PhD on the meaning and impact of the suicide of young care leavers. This includes a focus on the effects of such bereavements on people close to the care leavers– family members, peers and professionals.
PhD student - Laura Del Carpio
Laura is a PhD student in the School of Psychological Sciences and Health. Her main interest lies in understanding the factors which predict engagement in suicidal and self-harming behaviours. Laura’s doctoral research focuses on the impact of bereavement in young people, and is employing a mixed methods approach to investigate the experiences of adolescents bereaved through suicide or other types of death. Laura is also a research assistant working on a bereavement service evaluation, and has previous research and work experience in the field of adult mental health and wellbeing.
Phd student - Tia Simanovic
Tia is a first year PhD student with the School of Social Work and Social Policy doing research on Bereavement and Imprisonment. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from North Dakota State University, conducting an outcome evaluation of the effects of a short-term court-mandated stay in one juvenile detention center on youth recidivism. Tia’s research interests focus on juvenile corrections, issues in corrections, and evidence-based interventions in the criminal justice system. Her current study focuses on the effects of imprisonment on prisoners’ expression and realization of bereavement and grief when faced with death of a person outside of prison.