Vulnerability as Strength: A Journey in Palliative Care and Bereavement Research

Abstract:

My lecture explores a career that began in philosophy before moving, serendipitously, into the neglected corners of palliative care and bereavement research. Early on, I focused on the challenges of understanding suffering using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Those attempts to measure the unmeasurable were driven by my desire to illuminate the invisible aspects of serious illness and ultimately improve end-of-life experiences for patients and their families.

As I became more aware of the silences that surround illness and bereavement, I began trying to break them. Drawing on my research, and my experience founding the Good Grief Festival, I will discuss how I have sought to achieve change in clinical, community, society and policy contexts, with huge help from many colleagues and collaborators along the way.

What is the common theme for this journey? That vulnerability – in research participants, patients and professionals – is not a limitation to be managed, but a source of insight and strength. By presenting what I have learned so far, I will argue that owning our vulnerability is essential in transforming end-of-life care and bereavement support.

Biography:

Lucy Selman is Professor of Palliative and End of Life Care at the University of Bristol and Founding Director of the Good Grief Festival. She leads the university’s Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group and co-directs the Bristol Centre for Grief Research and Engagement.

Lucy graduated with a BA in Philosophy (1st) from Nottingham University in 2000 and an MPhil from Birkbeck (2003). She came across palliative care through a role at Help the Hospices (now Hospice UK) which led to fieldwork in India, before joining the Cicely Saunders Institute (CSI) at King’s College London in 2005. During a decade at the CSI, primarily working with Prof Richard Harding, Lucy trained in social science. Often focussing on neglected and ignored aspects of serious illness and palliative care, Lucy completed her PhD on spiritual well-being and its assessment in 2012. The same year she was awarded the European Association of Palliative Care’s Early Researcher Award.

Since joining the University of Bristol in 2016, Lucy has established a programme of research that spans clinical research into treatment decision-making and communication, multidisciplinary research on bereavement, and community-based research focussed on tackling health inequities. Her work is characterised by a commitment to societal benefit.

Lucy was an ESRC Outstanding Policy Impact Prize Finalist (2023) for her research on bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic, co-led with Dr Emily Harrop. In 2019 she founded the Good Grief Festival, which aims to support inclusive conversations about death, dying and bereavement and has now engaged over 35,000 people through its events and courses.

This event will be livestreamed. Please note that no ticket purchase is required to watch the livestream. Tickets are only needed for those attending in person. Additional details, including the livestream link, will be made available soon.

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