Dr Rachael Kelley

Rachael is a Reader in the School of Health. Her research focuses on improving the care and support offered to people living with dementia and their families, predominantly in hospitals and other healthcare settings. This includes work to improve the care of people living with dementia and comorbid health conditions such as cancer. Prior to starting her research career she was a qualified mental health nurse specialising in the care of people living with dementia.

Rachael has worked in applied health research since 2004, initially in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds (where she retains a visiting lecturer position) and subsequently in the Centre for Dementia Research at Leeds Beckett University. She has worked on many qualitative and quantitative research projects during this time, predominantly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). She is a member of a NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funding panel (Yorkshire and North East Region) as well as undertaking regular reviews for numerous academic journals and research funding panels. She also teaches health research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Rachael teaches applied health research methods across numerous undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the School of Health. She also runs workshops on ethnography at a university level, and teaches on a postgraduate certificate in health research at the University of Leeds.

Postgraduate Student supervision:

Rachael supervises postgraduate student projects in applied health research with a focus on her research interests.

Current & recent PhD and DClinPsychol students:

• PhD Thesis: Lindley, D. The involvement of people living with dementia in decision-making in ambulance services (2022-present)
• DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Own, H. Service users and families’ experiences of culturally adapted dementia assessments. (2022-present)
• PhD Thesis: Butterworth, L. Improving patient transport services for people living with dementia (2020-present)
• PhD Thesis: Crossland, J. Development of an intervention to support family carers whose relative with dementia moves into a care home (2019-present)
• PhD Thesis: Platt, R. The care and support needs of residential care home residents with comorbid cancer and dementia: An ethnographic study (2019-present)
• DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Crane R. Staff experiences of caring for people with dementia who are distressed (2018-2020; completed)
• DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis, Higgins, E. Disclosing Self-Harm to Non-Professionals in an Adult Sample (2018-2020; completed)
• DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Jenkins, E. Comparing conveyance and non-conveyance to the Emergency Department for self-harm (2015-2017; completed)