Dr Jeff Hanna

Under the leadership of Professor Alan Stein, I am part of the child and adolescent psychiatry group who focus on life-threatening conditions.

My main research interests include end of life, bereavement, and communication with dependent children when they or their parent has a life-limiting illness. My PhD (Ulster University, 2020) was an interpretative qualitative study exploring the psychosocial challenges and needs of families when a parent of dependent children is at end of life from cancer and the subsequent immediate bereavement period that follows. Following a systematic review, four sample groups were involved in this study, comprising of 79 participants. This included parents at end of life, bereaved parents, health and social care professionals and funeral directors. The findings from this study have been published in Palliative Medicine, Psycho-Oncology and Death Studies.

 A resource is currently being developed in collaboration with colleagues at King’s College London to support health and social care professionals’ provision of supportive care to parents with have a life-limiting illness in routine practice concerning their dependent children. This resource has been endorsed by Marie Curie, and will be launched at the 17th World Congress for the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) (2021).

I am currently working on the following projects:

- A qualitative study exploring the experience for health and social care professionals in providing end of life care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

- A mixed-methods study exploring family-centred conversations in clinical practice.

- A qualitative study exploring the psychosocial needs of adults in later life (60+) bereaved by suicide, through the lens of older adults and social care professionals (University of Strathclyde).

- Development of a screening tool for suicide prevention with people in later life (60+) (University of Strathclyde).