Dr Liz Lloyd at the Centre for Health and Social Care (in the School for Policy Studies) has secured a major grant of over £270,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council for a project entitled ‘Maintaining dignity in later life: A longitudinal qualitative study of older people’s experiences of supportive care’. Dr Lloyd will work with Policy Studies colleagues Ailsa Cameron and Randall Smith, as well as colleagues from the Department of Social Medicine and the University of Nottingham.

The study will examine how older people with supportive care needs experience later life, what preparations they make for the end of life and the effects on their sense of dignity when they become dependent on the support of others. Dignity is understood as encompassing respect, recognition, autonomy, independence and identity.

The research will be conducted over three years with people aged 75 and over in Bristol and Nottingham who will be selected because of their need for support and care. Through its focus on the experiences and perceptions of older participants this research has the potential to enhance understanding of dignity and therefore to be of benefit to health and social care policies and practice.