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.