Caroline Ellis-Hill

Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill

  • Senior Lecturer In Qualitative Research
  • Bournemouth Gateway Building BG504, St Pauls Lane, Bournemouth, BH8 8GP
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Biography

My interest lies in health and social care research, education and practice which supports being fully human, through taking a lifeworld-led approach. In this approach, consideration is given to what life feels like from the inside out, not only as seen from the outside in. Understandings are relational, ongoing and embodied. This approach is based on existential understandings from philosophical lifeworld approaches and focuses on what make us feel human. Humanising practices are those that incorporate this human knowing and support a sense of connection and wellbeing for both staff and service users. I am interested in the wellbeing of staff and service users in health and social care in general, building on my experience in occupational therapy and psychology within acquired physical disability. The approach is supported by education and working practices which encourage connection to personal experience and research approaches which privilege subjective experience and knowing; such as phenomenology, narrative, auto-ethnography, participatory action research and arts–based approaches.

Research

I am currently involved in two studies;

() Stroke Odysseys: What does performance arts education offer the stroke rehabilitation pathway? working with Rosetta Life https://www.rosettalife.org/ as part of the Wellcome Trust funded project SHAPER - Scaling-up Health Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/shaper

() The InnovateDignity EU funded project which is an Innovative Training Network of 15 PhD students who will be the next generation of leaders to deliver innovations in dignified sustainable care systems for older people. Further information https://innovatedignity.eu/

Previous studies include:

() The HeART of stroke study -a feasbility study of an Arts and Health intervention for people after they have a stroke. More information about this project can be found at https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/humanising-care-health-wellbeing/heart-stroke-study

() Humanising Services: A new transferable leadership strategy for improving 'what matters to older people' to enhance dignity in care. This study Involved working with staff and patients to humanise stroke services, applying a deep philosophical theory to practice.

All of these studies are linked to my interest in Lifeworld-led practice. When using a Lifeworld-led approach practice is based on understandings of how life feels from the inside out rather than how it is seen from the outside. Subjective existential aspects related to being human are the focus of understanding in relation to both service users and providers alike, leading to an overall aim of enhancing wellbeing for all...

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Favourites

  • Ellis-Hill, C., Pound, C. and Galvin, K., 2022. Making the invisible more visible: Reflections on practice-based humanising lifeworld-led research – existential opportunities for supporting dignity, compassion and wellbeing. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 36 (4), 1037-1045.
  • Galvin, K.T., Pound, C., Cowdell, F., Ellis-Hill, C., Sloan, C., Brooks, S. and Ersser, S.J., 2020. A lifeworld theory-led action research process for humanizing services: improving “what matters” to older people to enhance humanly sensitive care. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 15 (1).
  • Whiffin, C.J., Ellis-Hill, C., Bailey, C., Jarrett, N. and Hutchinson, P.J., 2019. We are not the same people we used to be: An exploration of family biographical narratives and identity change following traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 29 (8), 1256-1272.
  • Ellis-Hill, C. et al., 2019. HeART of Stroke: Randomised controlled, parallel-Arm, feasibility study of a community-based arts and health intervention plus usual care compared with usual care to increase psychological well-being in people following a stroke. BMJ Open, 9 (3).
  • Galvin, K.T., Sloan, C., Cowdell, F., Ellis-Hill, C., Pound, C., Watson, R., Ersser, S. and Brooks, S., 2018. Facilitating a dedicated focus on the human dimensions of care in practice settings: Development of a new humanised care assessment tool (HCAT) to sensitise care. Nursing Inquiry, 25 (3).
  • Ellis-Hill, C., Thomas, S. et al., 2015. 'HeART of Stroke (HoS)', a community-based Arts for Health group intervention to support self-confidence and psychological well-being following a stroke: Protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility study. BMJ Open, 5 (8).
  • Ellis-Hill, C., Robison, J., Wiles, R., McPherson, K.M., Hyndman, D. and Ashburn, A., 2009. Going home to get on with life: Patients and carers experiences of being discharged from hospital following a stroke. Disability & Rehabilitation, 31, 61-72.
  • Ellis-Hill, C., Payne, S. and Ward, C., 2008. Using stroke to explore the Life Thread Model: An alternative approach to understanding rehabilitation following an acquired disability. Disability & Rehabilitation, 30, 150-159.
  • Ellis-Hill, C.S. and Horn, S., 2000. Change in identity and self-concept: A new theoretical approach to recovery following a stroke. Clinical Rehabilitation, 14 (3), 279-287.
  • Ellis-Hill, C., Payne, S. and Ward, C., 2000. Self-body split: issues of identity in physical recovery following a stroke. Disability and Rehabilitation, 22, 725-733.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDGs:

Good health and well-being

"Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages"

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Reduced inequalities

"Reduce inequality within and among countries"

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