Alison Ellwood

I began working with older people as a care assistant in a residential care home in 2008. I worked in this role for about eight years and during this time I also undertook my first degree in psychology at the University of Bradford. I found that I was interested in the lived experiences of other people and the use of qualitative approaches to explore this. To gain further experience of such research I worked with one of my former lecturers on her work on the experiences of ageing in motherhood. I moved into research with the NHS on a number of projects based in care home, hospital and community settings. The bulk of this work was trial based, although my preference was always direct contact with older people and those who provide care. I was also involved with development of a ‘living lab’ approach to research in care homes undertaken since 2018 by the University of Leeds, working with staff, families and residents on priority setting and enhancing care provision. In the last few years while completing my PhD I have worked on a number of projects exploring care in local settings and understanding implementation of new services into complex health and social care settings.