Research
Rachael Kelley
Rachael Kelley
Research Fellow
School of Health & Community Studies
0113 81 25909 R.Kelley@leedsbeckett.ac.ukAbout Rachael Kelley
Rachael is currently working as a research fellow in the School of Health and Community studies with a focus on developing and conducting research into the care of people with dementia. She has worked in health research since 2004, predominantly at the University of Leeds where she held two National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Fellowships; a Doctoral Fellowship and a Clinical Trials Fellowship.
Rachael has worked on many quantitative and qualitative research projects, including clinical trials, focused mainly on two research areas; the care of people with dementia and their families and hospital services for people who self-harm. Her NIHR funded PhD was an ethnographic study exploring how the use of families knowledge and expertise impacts upon the general hospital care of people with dementia. The variety of projects Rachael has worked on means that she has experience of a variety of data collection methods and of all aspects of the research process, from grant applications and research ethics to data collection, analysis and dissemination.
Prior to starting her research career she was a qualified mental health nurse specialising in the care of people with dementia.
Current Teaching
Student Supervision
Rachael supervises projects in applied health research with a focus on mental health. Specific interests and expertise include the following:
- Mental health conditions in older people (dementia in particular)
- Self-harm and suicide (including the use of ambulance and hospital services for self-harm)
- Projects involving qualitative (including expertise in ethnographic methods) and quantitative data collection (including epidemiological studies and analysis of data from health records and routine data sets)
Current & recent PhD, DClinPsychol and Masters students
- Emily Jenkins (Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Leeds)
Comparing conveyance and non-conveyance to the Emergency Department for self-harm: prevalence and ambulance service staff perspective. Co-supervised with Dr David Owens and Gary Latchford. Completed 2017. - Sue Moorchild (MA in Social Work, Leeds Beckett University)
The provision and uptake of support service for people with dementia and their carers living in the community. Co-supervised with David Mercer.
Research Interests
Rachael is interested in various aspects of research into mental health. Specific areas of interest include the care of older people, the care and support of people with dementia and their carers, and services and support for people who self-harm.
Rachael's PhD explored whether involving families in care can improve experiences of hospital care for people with dementia. She carried out ethnographic data collection involving interviews and observations with people with dementia, their families and staff on elderly care hospital wards. The findings of this research will help to guide the development of recent NHS plans to increase the involvement of families in the general hospital care of people with dementia. She is currently working on several research projects including the process evaluation for the DCM-EPIC trial (a trial to establish the effectiveness of a care improvement tool called Dementia Care Mapping in care homes), a systematic review of the implementation of randomised controlled trials in care homes, and a mixed methods study of care experiences, treatments and outcomes for people with co-morbid dementia and cancer.