I am the Course Lead for Post Qualifying Programmes and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. I am also a Practice Educator and Best Interest Assessor, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am a registered social worker and qualified at Kingston University in 1996. I have worked for many years in adult community care services, and my professional interest areas are safeguarding, mental capacity, self-neglect, and working with people living with dementia. I am the university representative on Kingston's Alzheimer's Dementia Friendly Community Group (DFCG), which focuses on raising awareness and developing the skills and knowledge of students and the local community in supporting people living with dementia. I have and continue to lead on a range of interprofessional dementia raising awareness events (see videos for links to these events). I have also developed a Special Interest Group (SIG), which increases students' knowledge and skills in supporting people living with dementia with regular events to promote awareness.
I am passionate about supporting social work students and practitioners to develop their skills and knowledge in person-centred approaches. I have developed post-qualifying modules in Safeguarding Adults at Risk, which explores the complexities of practice in balancing the right to autonomy with issues of risk and protection. I developed and now co-lead the Best Interest Assessor module and am currently developing new modules that will reflect the proposed changes within the Liberty Protection Safeguards. My role in the department includes teaching across all the social work programmes, BA and the MSW, where I am currently the year one lead. My doctoral thesis is an ethnographic study exploring social workers' experiences of working with adults who self-neglect. My research findings have been presented at conferences and workshops and actively inform my teaching and the development of professional practice.
Course Leader: Masters in Advanced Social Work and Post Qualifying Programmes & Senior Lecturer.
This video presents the live event that explores students and partner agencies of working with people living with Dementia through the pandemic. It also provides a trailer of the live production, 'Grandma Remember Me' which is a play that explores how a family are affected when a love one is living with Dementia.