BRF Committee
Liz Rolls 
Chair  		 Liz is currently a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University (working on the Cancer Experiences Collaborative project - http://www.ceco.org.uk/) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire. She is a registered nurse, health visitor and trained counsellor. She came into higher education, as a health visitor tutor, and has since been engaged in the education and training of a wide range of health and social care practitioners. In recent years, she has undertaken a number of research and consultancy activities, including research on UK childhood bereavement services involving interviews with bereaved children and their parents, and research with services 'mapping evaluations'. Her doctorate is entitled 'Containing grief: Ambiguities and dilemmas in the emotional work of UK childhood bereavement services'. She has published a number of papers and contributed to a number of chapters on aspects of UK childhood bereavement service provision, children's and parent's experience of using them, and of the staff experience of working in them.

Email: lrolls@glos.ac.uk


Gillian Chowns 
Vice-Chair  

 Gillian has worked in Social Services, Education and the NHS. A local authority social worker for many years, specialising in Children and Families, she also taught in primary, secondary, sixth form and further education settings, both in England and Africa. In 1997 she moved into the palliative care field, establishing an innovative social work post within the East Berks Macmillan Palliative Care Team, specifically to support children whose parents were facing a life-threatening illness.

From 1999 she combined this with a post as Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, in the School of Health and Social Care, where she taught on the Palliative Care Degree course. More recently, in 2006, she completed her doctoral research, at the University of Southampton, on the pre-bereavement needs of children. Part of this research involved the production of a video "No - You don't know how we feel", which has sold widely in the UK and also abroad. Although intended for families, it has been used extensively as a training tool for professionals.

In 2008 Gillian moved to the University of Southampton, as a Visiting Fellow. She is also co-director of Palliative Care Works, a collaborative consultancy specialising in palliative care in resource-poor countries. She has contributed chapters to the following books:-

Monroe, B. and Kraus, F. (2005) Brief Interventions with Bereaved Children. Oxford: OUP

Jarrett L (2007) Creative Engagement in Palliative Care. Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing

Wee, B. and Hughes, N. (2007) Education in Palliative Care. Oxford: OUP.

Reason P and Bradbury H (2008) Handbook of Action Research London Sage

Email: Gpatgc@aol.com

Jan Oyebode
  Treasurer 

Jan is a clinical psychologist and worked for many years with older people in the NHS in both physical and mental health services, often working with issues of loss and bereavement.
She made a part-time move to an academic post within the Clinical Psychology Programme team at the University of Birmingham in 1996 which allowed her to pursue her interest in bereavement research.
She is now working 4 days a week as Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctorate Programme and 1 day a week as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with older people in the NHS. She uses a wide range of research methods including single case series and qualitative approaches. Her main research interests are in continuing bonds after bereavement especially in relation to older adults.

Email: J.R.Oyebode@Bham.ac.uk
Joanne Anning 

Joanne has been the Coordinator and Assistant Psychologist for Jeremiah’s Journey for the last six and half years.

Her interest in research in the bereavement area has grown particularly following a collaborative project with a group of teenagers who had used the service to redesign our website.

She was struck by how they had made sense of their bereavement and how this experience had been used to inform their sense of self. This research has already been shared at several conferences and is being prepared for publication.

Together with Dr. Jacqui Stedmon, Joanne is considering the impact of attachment style on the grieving process and specifically its impact on the construction or not of an adaptive continuing bond. This has developed her interest in further exploring the role of qualitative research in the field of bereavement work.

Email: info@jeremiahsjourney.org.uk

Erica Brown		 Erica Brown is Vice President of Acorns Children’s Hospices, Principal Lecturer at University of Worcester and an Independent Consultant in Children’s and Young People’s Palliative Care. Erica was formerly Head of Research and Development of Care at Acorns and she worked as Head of Special Education at Oxford University. She has longstanding experience as a senior manager in schools and universities and she has lectured and published nationally and internationally.

Erica is a trained bereavement counsellor and the mum of twins who died.

Her most recent books include:

Loss, Change and Grief – an educational perspective. (1999) London: David Fulton Publishers.

Supporting Children with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – a guide for teachers and professionals. (2001) London: David Fulton Publishers.

The Death of a Child: Care for the Child, Support for the Family. (2003) Birmingham: Acorns Children’s Hospices.

Palliative Care for South Asians – Hindus, Muslims Sikhs. (2008) (2nd Edition). London: Quay Books.

Supporting the Child and the Family in Paediatric Palliative Care. (2007) London: Jessica Kingsley.

Supporting Bereaved Children in the Primary School. (2009) London: Help the Hospices. Life Changes – loss, change and bereavement for children aged 3-11 years old. (2010)(In Press) Manchester: Lions -Tacade.

The Spiritual, Religious, Cultural and Psychological Care of Sick Children and their Families. (2010)(Forthcoming) London: Jessica Kingsley.
Dawn Chaplin 

Dawn is a registered nurse with an MSc in Health Sciences and is completing a PhD at the University of Birmingham on Bereavement in the Abrahamic faiths.

She has recently been appointed to Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust as Head of Bereavement Services with a remit of developing a seamless bereavement care service fit for purpose in the 21st century.

Dawn is a founder member and current vice chair of the Bereavement Services Association, and has worked with the DH on the implementation of ‘When a Patient Dies’.

She is currently working on a national project with the BSA and Cruse bereavement Care looking at bridging the gap between NHS bereavement services and the voluntary sector.

Email: dawn.chaplin@heartofengland.nhs.uk
Mollie Cook   Mollie worked as a ward sister on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Guy’s Hospital between 1986 and 1998 during which time she recognised the lack of information and support offered to the parents whose children died. She began to develop a very small service in her own time, which included co-facilitating a bereaved parents’ support group with the Counselling Psychologist for Paediatrics. Mollie also began an Open University Psychology Degree in 1990 and a counselling certificate course at WPF in 1994. Her bereavement support work gradually developed and in 1998 it became a full-time post, and offered support to all bereaved parents within the Evelina Children’s Hospital at Guy’s. Between the years 1994 and 2003 Mollie completed her BSc Hons. Psychology, and a diploma and MSc Counselling Psychology at Roehampton, University of Surrey. She is a chartered Counselling Psychologist. The research component of her Masters looked at possible reasons for clients not returning to counselling after the initial session.

Email: Mollie.cook@gstt.nhs.uk
Jacqui Stedmon  Dr Jacqui Stedmon is a Lecturer at the University of Plymouth where she acts as Academic Director for the Doctorate Programme in Clinical Psychology.

She developed an interest in bereavement while working clinically in paediatrics and went on to co-found Jeremiah's Journey; a charitable organistion providing support for bereaved children and their families in the local area.

Currently Jacqui acts as Clinical Director for this service as well as being a director for the Bereavement Counselling Service for adults in Plymouth. Jacqui works as a family therapist and has combined her interests in narrative therapy with understanding grief in children. Her research interests are focused on understanding the meaning making process in younger people's grief from an attachment perspective.

In particular she thinks there is much to be learned about how attachment style might influence the telling of stories about bereavement for younger people and whether or not they construct an adaptive continuing bond with the deceased. This work is being prepared for publication. Jacqui is also co-editing a book on Reflective Practice in Psychotherapy and Counselling due out in 2009.

Email: j.stedmon@plymouth.ac.uk
Tina Williams  Tina is a UKCP registered psychotherapist with an MSc in integrative psychotherapy based on research undertaken around end of life issues.

She has extensive experience of working within palliative care and bereavement. She has over 20 years of clinical experience, working therapeutically in a range of different contexts and has worked with many people approaching the end of their lives as well as bereaved individuals.

In addition to her research, Tina has been involved in writing and delivering accredited, training programmes within the bereavement field, presented her research at the BACP Research Conference in 2003 and in 2007 helped to run a workshop at the CRUSE National Conference.

Tina is now head of The Laura Centre a regional charity offering support to bereaved families, parents and children. She has a specific interest in the dissemination of knowledge and understanding about bereavement and loss and is keen to promote the sharing of knowledge in the field through research, writing and the development of forums.

Since joining The Laura Centre three years ago she has been actively involved in networking and supporting the local community and voluntary sector as well as the bereavement field nationally.

In 2006 in conjunction with Nicola Barden, the Chair of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Tina co-authored an academic book ‘Words and Symbols in Therapy’ edited by Michael Jacobs and by the Open University Press in Dec ’06.

Email: Tina@thelauracentre.org