Mary Pat Sullivan
Dr. Mary Pat Sullivan is a lecturer in the Division of Social Work, Brunel University. She is also Director of the Gerontological Social Work Research Programme, Brunel Institute of Ageing Studies. Mary Pat was previously a specialist social work practitioner in geriatric mental health in Canada. Dr. Sullivan has been a member of the British Society of Gerontology’s Executive Committee since 2009. Her current research is in the area of gerontological social work, evidence-based health promotion initiatives for older people, ageing in Arab cultures, and kinship care and family practices in later life.
Eleanor van den Heuvel
Eleanor van den Heuvel is a Research Fellow at Brunel Institute for Bioengineering, with experience in a wide range of projects working at the interface between Biology and Engineering. Eleanor has a particular interest in developing assistive technology for continence management problems and has granted patents in this field. She is currently principal investigator for the TACT3 Project, a multidisciplinary project aimed at reducing the impact of continence difficulties for older people. Eleanor is an active member of the Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies and director of the Assistive Technology research stream.
Felicity Jowitt
Felicity Jowitt is an Industrial Designer who has worked in such diverse fields as: Steel office furniture design, Space filtration technology and Continence technology. She has been based in the Brunel Institute for Bioengineering, and has worked in the field of assistive technology for the past 10 years. Her particular interest is in translating technology into simple, usable products that can improve people’s quality of life.
Ben Liu
Dr Ben Liu is a Lecturer and Programme Leader of MA in Social Work of Brunel University. He is a registered social worker and graduated with an MA in Social Work in 1992. Having worked as a hospital social worker for several years, he pursued further training in health and social care for older adults and was awarded a PhD in Community Medicine in 1999. His research interests are related to ageing and mental health, health and social care for older adults, and end-of-life care.
Mary Gilhooly
A psychologist by training, Mary Gilhooly is Executive Director of the Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies (BIAS), Professor of Gerontology and Deputy Head Research, School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University. Professor Gilhooly’s research concerns issues surrounding ageing and older adults, and has covered topics as varied as petitioning the House of Lords on the subject of ‘living wills’, research on the effects of playing chess and doing crosswords on cognitive ability in old age and the role of ICT in quality of life in old age. Current grants in the New Dynamics of Ageing programme include a study of decision-making in detecting financial elder abuse and research on incontinence. Professor Gilhooly was President of the British Society of Gerontology from 2000-2004.
Deborah Cairns
Dr Deborah Cairns worked as a research psychologist for three years before completing her PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University, investigating the experiences of prolonged caregiving on older parents caring for offspring with learning disabilities. Deborah’s interest in older people led her to the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University in September 2008 where she became a Research Fellow on the two year project investigating financial abuse of older adults. She has recently joined as the Research Fellow on Professor Victor’s Dunhill Medical Trust funded research project: Bridging the gap between policy and practice: dignity in care for older people.