ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

Publications

Johansson Therese, D'Eer Louise, Eneslätt Malin, Kleijberg Max, Quintiens Bert, Sallnow Libby,

Textbook of Palliative Care (2025) (2025)

1st International Congress on the Pedagogy of Death and Educational Development, pp. 21-24 (2025)

Turner Denise, Douglas Vida, , Pickersgill-McKenzie Marva, Taplin Sue

Social Work Week 2025, Social Work England (2025)

, , ,

European Conference for Social Work Research (2025)

McEwan Joan, Irvine Christine, Precious Gail, White Jacquie, Mathison Nick,

Marie Curie Research into Practice Conference 2025 (2025)

Quintiens Bert,

(2024)

Teaching

My teaching spans three broad fields: social work, bereavement and loss and research skills. I teach across both of the qualifying social work programmes: the BA(Hons) in Social Work and the Masters of Social Work.  I also contribute teaching on bereavement and loss in other settings, academic and practice, to a variety of disciplines. 

Research Interests

My research focuses on bereavement, loss and end-of-life care with a particular emphasis on developing the resilience of communities to better cope with, and support, related experiences.  I have a particular interest in the experiences of marginalised groups, including children and young people and people involved in the criminal justice system. I have experience of action research and am committed to participatory research methods that have impact across practice and policy as well as within academia.

I welcome proposals from Undergraduate, Masters or potential PhD students with related research interests. 

I currently supervise the following doctoral students: 

Sallyanne Mercer - Death and dying in prison: deconstructing disenfranchised dying (with Professor Beth Weaver)

Emma Young - Supporting successful parenting: exploring professional responses to women in and leaving care who are pregnant or parenting (with Dr Laura Steckley)

Bright Anthony - The impact of parental death on children and family dynamics during Covid -19 in Scotland (with Dr Nina Vaswani)

Kerrie Highcock - The voices and experiences of autistic youth (with Dr Anna Robinson)

Penny Laycock - Adult Children of Alcoholics and Problem Substance Use (with Professor Bernard Harris)

I have supervised the following doctoral students to successful completion of their award:

Dr Tia Simanovic - Bereavement and imprisonment: an exploration of the experience of grief and loss prior to and during custody (with Professor Beth Weaver)

Dr Laura del Carpio - Life after loss: a theory based investigation of the impact of bereavement by suicide or other causes on adolescents in Scotland (with Dr Susan Rasmussen)

Dr David Duncan - Facilitating a creative and pedagogical space to engage children with the topic of death and dying in schools (with Dr Anna Robinson) 

Dr Keyla Cooper - Problematising palliative cre: a 'what's the problem represented to be' analysis of WHO guidelines (with Professor Ian Greener)

Professional Activities

Participant

26/2/2026

Speaker

22/6/2025

Participant

12/3/2025

Visiting researcher

2025

Invited speaker

2025

Member

2025

Projects

Paul, Sally (Principal Investigator)

01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2026

Paul, Sally (Principal Investigator) Quintiens, Bert (Co-investigator) Dury, Sarah (Co-investigator) Cohen, Joachim (Co-investigator)

The project aims to establish an inter-disciplinary learning network to develop trans-disciplinary knowledge about the opportunities and challenges to advancing education and support around illness, caregiving, death, and loss in school communities. In doing so, it situates the project teams existing research, and the field of public health palliative care (PHPC) more broadly, alongside education and bereavement studies, to advance the development of ‘Compassionate Schools’ both in Scotland and internationally. The specific objectives of this project are to:
1. Establish a European learning network to share inter-disciplinary learning about serious illness, caregiving, death, and bereavement in school communities.
2. Explore challenges and opportunities for developing capacity across school communities.
3. Share the above learning via: a special interest seminar at the PHPC international conference and printed/online learning materials.
4. Use the above learning to inform a future developments, include research and knowledge exchange activities.

08-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2024

Paul, Sally (Principal Investigator) Somerville, Jen (Co-investigator) Del Carpio, Laura Elina (Post Grad Student)

05-Jan-2022 - 06-Jan-2024

McPheat, Graham (Principal Investigator) MacIntyre, Gillian (Co-investigator) Paul, Sally (Co-investigator) Stewart, Ailsa (Co-investigator)

03-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2022

Rasmussen, Susan (Principal Investigator) Nabizadeh, Golnar (Principal Investigator) Murphy, Christopher (Co-investigator) Jindal-Snape, Divya (Co-investigator) Herd, Damon (Co-investigator) Vaughan, Philip (Co-investigator) Paul, Sally (Co-investigator) Furnivall, Judith (Co-investigator) Vaswani, Nina (Co-investigator)

Total funding provided by SUII:£18,000.00

The programme explores the impact of bereavement on young people aged 12–18 years, supporting them to construct and represent their bereavement stories through the medium of comics. Bereavement is a common childhood experience: more than 75% of young people have experienced the death of someone close (Harrison & Harrington 2001) and this is higher for vulnerable children (Vaswani 2014). Bereavement may have short and long-term impacts on a child's wellbeing, including psychological health and educational achievement. Recent Scottish policy emphasises developing discourse and support around bereavement: yet, a culture of not talking about the issue remains (Knight et al 2000). Carers and professionals express a wish to support young people, but can lack the confidence or skills to do so (Paul 2016). Comics are an ideal medium for storytelling as the combination of image and text generates creative responses to physical and mental health issues (Squier & Marks 2014). The process of creating and reading comics helps generate confident life stories: a key component in building resilience (Bosticco & Thompson 2005). Programme outputs are designed to support professionals and carers to respond meaningfully and effectively to childhood bereavement, inform national policy on childhood bereavement, and normalise bereavement more broadly.

03-Jan-2018 - 30-Jan-2019

Cohen, Joachim (Principal Investigator) De Vleminck, Aline (Co-investigator) Lindqvist, Olav (Co-investigator) Paul, Sally (Co-investigator) Sallnow, Libby (Co-investigator) Tishelman, Carol (Co-investigator)

09-Jan-2018 - 04-Jan-2022