Warren DonnellanUniversity of Liverpool | UoL · Department of Psychology
Warren Donnellan
BSc; PhD; SFHEA; CPsychol.
About
22
Publications
3,380
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264
Citations
Introduction
I am a Psychologist and Lecturer based in the Department of Psychology at the University of Liverpool. My research uses mixed methods to identify and explore the factors that promote resilience in older people. I am also the Institutional Sub-theme Lead for Heritage and Wellbeing research; this work aims to explore the dynamic interface between ageing, identity, life history, and sense of space and place with different dimensions of biopsychosocial wellbeing.
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - present
September 2016 - September 2017
March 2014 - present
First Tutors
Position
- Psychology and Statistics Tutor
Education
September 2012 - June 2017
September 2009 - July 2012
Publications
Publications (22)
Objectives:
Spousal dementia carers have unique support needs; they are likely to disengage from their existing social networks as they need to devote more time to caring as the disease progresses. Previously we showed that support resources can facilitate resilience in carers, but the relationship is complex and varies by relationship type. The c...
Objectives: Much is known about the factors making caring for a spouse with dementia burdensome. However, relatively little is known about factors that help some spouses become resilient. We define resilience as ‘the process of negotiating, managing and adapting to significant sources of stress or trauma’. We aimed to assess whether spousal dementi...
Background: Diagnosis and treatment for End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) results in vast lifestyle changes. Despite the high prevalence of depression in people with ESKD, the psychosocial impacts of ESKD are still often overlooked. Illness perceptions enable people to make sense of their illness and are closely associated with depression. Due to the...
Background:
Informal dementia care is uniquely stressful and necessitates effective methods of identifying and understanding the needs of potentially at-risk carers so that they can be supported and sustained in their roles. One such method is examining carers’ engagement in online support platforms. Research has explored emotional word use on onli...
Most perinatal research relating to COVID‐19 focuses on its negative impact on maternal and parental mental health. Currently, there are limited data on how to optimise positive health during the pandemic. We aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring how women have adapted to becoming a new parent during the pandemic and to identify elements...
Background: Measures put in place to modify the COVID-19 infection rate, may have jeopardised typical end-of-life care values, focused on individual needs and preferences, such as the wish not to die alone.
Aim: To understand bereaved relatives’ perceptions about the dying experience during the pandemic.
Methods: A national online survey, informe...
Background: The global COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on experiences of dying and death. Family members perceptions about the quality of care for dying individuals and their preparedness for death may influence their psychological adjustment in grief.
Aim: To explore relatives’ experiences and needs when their family member was dying d...
Objectives
To explore the different factors of resilience for people living with dementia and unpaid carers, in response to sudden changes in care and lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
Unpaid carers and people living with dementia were offered telephone interviews in April 2020 to discuss their experiences since the COVID-19 pandemic...
This paper has been researched and written to assist commissioners and providers
of carer support services as they consider how to build capacity for reaching and
meeting the needs of carers in the future. The paper has been funded through the
Government’s modern industrial strategy by UK Research and Innovation.
Purpose
Research has shown that informal carers of people living with dementia (PLWD) can be resilient in the face of caregiving challenges. However, little is known about resilience across different kinship ties. This study aims to update and build on our previous work, using an ecological resilience framework to identify and explore the factors t...
Background
COVID-19 public health restrictions have affected end-of-life care experiences for dying patients and their families.
Aim
To explore bereaved relatives’ experiences of quality of care and family support provided during the last days of life; to identify the impact of factors associated with perceived support.
Design
A national, observa...
Background
Health and social care professionals’ ability to address the needs of patients and their relatives at end of life is likely to have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aim
To explore health and social care professionals’ experiences of providing end of life care during the COVID-19 pandemic to help inform current/future clinical pra...
Abstract
Background:
Meeting the needs of relatives when a family member is dying can help facilitate better psychological adjustment in their grief. However, end of life experiences for families are likely to have been deleteriously impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Understanding how families’ needs can be met during a global pandemic will have cur...
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected experiences of death and dying for patients and families. Our focus was on bereaved relatives’ perceptions about experiences of care in the last days of life during the pandemic to help inform practice and policy.
Methods
A national online survey, informed by patient and public involvement, w...
Background: Research shows that formal and informal social support can facilitate resilience in carers. There is a paucity of research exploring social support and resilience amongst recently bereaved informal carers.
Aim: To examine how the presence or absence of distinct dimensions of social support facilitate or hinder resilience in recently ber...
Objectives:
Little research examines trajectories of carer resilience or the factors that facilitate or hinder resilience over time. We use qualitative longitudinal methods to examine trajectories of resilience and which assets and resources are associated with resilience and care status transitions in spousal dementia carers.
Method:
Based on a...
This thesis uses qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and explore resilience in informal carers using Windle and Bennett’s (2011) ecological framework. First, we1 explore the ecological framework in older informal carers. We reveal that older spousal dementia carers and non-spousal informal carers can achieve resilience. Carers draw on...
Resilience is typically not well operationalised with conceptual inconsistency and little emphasis on its on-going development. 'Escalator’ theory (ET) is developed from in-depth qualitative interview data taken from 33 family carers of people with dementia. The care experience is often like climbing up a downward moving escalator; carers overcome...
Questions
Question (1)
We are looking to run text analysis of online discussion forum posts of carers, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC; Pennebaker, Boyd, Jordan, & Blackburn, 2015). We are unaware of any existing robust protocols for running this kind of analysis, and wondered if anyone had any suggestions?
Thanks.
Projects
Projects (4)
The current study aimed to examine data from Mobilise’s daily virtual cuppas to explore the challenges that carers are facing during COVID-19 lockdown and the resources they are drawing on to mitigate them.
1. What specific challenges are carers facing during COVID-19?
2. What resources are carers drawing on to manage and adapt to these challenges during COVID-19?
3. How effective is the ‘virtual cuppa’ in reducing carers’ challenges over time?
4. How effective is the ‘virtual cuppa’ in promoting carers’ resilience over time?
To publish 3rd year research project using qualitative methods to look at factors that help, hinder and have a mixed effect on mothers of autistic adults.
To use understanding of the past to inform contemporary debate around wellbeing.
The dynamic interface between ageing, identity, life history, memory, and sense of space (architecture, infrastructure), and place, with different dimensions of biopsychosocial wellbeing.
The role of heritage (artefacts, reminiscence, digital) in promoting wellbeing, belongingness, and (re)connecting people with individual and shared (e.g. family/friend, cultural, societal) identity, life history, memory, sense of place and space, across the lifespan.
