Dr Rachael Kelley

Profile

Background

Rachael is an visiting Research Fellow with research interests in the care of people with dementia and their families, and hospital services for people who self-harm. Rachael trained and worked as a mental health nurse for several years before coming to work as a researcher in the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS). She has held two National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Fellowships at LIHS; a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship and a NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship.

Rachael has expertise in a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods ranging from large epidemiological studies to in-depth ethnographic research. She undertakes applied mental health research; her specific areas of interest include care and support for people living with dementia and their families, services for people who self-harm, and the management of dementia and mental health problems in general hospital and emergency care settings. Please see the 'research interests' section for an overview of Rachael's research.

Rachael worked at LIHS from 2004-2017 and retains a visiting role at LIHS as a Research Fellow. She also works as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Dementia Studies at Leeds Beckett University where she continues to work on research to improve the care and support offered to people with dementia and their families.

Leeds Beckett Academic Profile

Academic Services

From 2011-2017 Rachael was a member of the LIHS and School of Medicine Athena Swan Committees. She took an active role in co-leading work around improving the support offered to postgraduate and medical students and to staff who are parents. 

Responsibilities

• Research Fellow
• Lecturer in Applied Health Research

Research interests

Rachael worked at LIHS from 2004 to 2017 on various quantitative and qualitative research projects. Her research has focused mainly on two research areas; improving care and support for people living with dementia and their families and hospital services for people who self-harm. Her research work at LIHS included coordinating all local aspects of a large multi-centre research project into self-harm which was part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. Her NIHR Doctoral Fellowship used ethnographic methods to explore the impacts of family involvement on general hospital care for people with dementia.

Subsequent research includes work on several large clinical trials of complex interventions to improve health care for older people, including the DCM-EPIC Trial; A multi-centre randomised clinical trial of Dementia Care Mapping. Rachael co-led the process evaluation for the trial during her NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship at the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research.

Rachael's doctoral thesis can be accessed here .

And a summary of her thesis can be found here.

More details of the DCM-EPIC Trial can be found here.

Qualifications

• PhD (2017) School of Medicine, University of Leeds
• MSc (2008) School of Medicine, University of Leeds (Distinction)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research (2006) School of Medicine, University of Leeds (Distinction)
• BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing (2002), Leeds Beckett University (Distinction)

Professional memberships

• Registered Mental Health Nurse with the NMC

Student education

Rachael has been a regular tutor on the Health Research MSc Programme at LIHS since 2006, and continues this role as part of her visiting duties at the University. She delivers teaching on topics including statistics, qualitative research methods, ethics and research dissemination as well as marking student assignments. She has previously taught on the mental health component of the MBChB (Medical Degree). Rachael also supervises doctoral students on the DClin Psychology course.

Supervision:

DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Jenkins, E. Comparing conveyance and non-conveyance to the Emergency Department for self-harm. (2015-2017)

Dclin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Crane, R. Understanding nursing staff responses to distressed behaviours in people with dementia in a general hospital setting. (2018-present)

DClin Psychology Doctoral Thesis: Higgins, E. Disclosing Self-Harm to Non-Professionals in an Adult Sample. (2018-present)

Rachael is happy to supervise doctoral students on topics related to her research interests.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
• Psychological and Social Medicine