Research

The Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability exists to help individuals and organizations address pressing spiritual and theological issues and needs within the religious communities and the health and social care professions and within the field of disability theology. It seeks to achieve this task through the development of a rigorous evidence based empirical research program with a particular focus on research that informs practice.

Areas of activity include: Mental Health, Dementia, Learning Disabilities, Health and Healing, Oncology, End of Life Care, the Theology of Disability, Genetics and Disability, Parish Nursing, Ethics, Staff Support, Chaplaincy and Suicide.

Interdisciplinary Research Projects

The Centre seeks to develop strong relationships with other disciplines within theology, health and social care, the sciences, the Arts and Humanities, and religious communities. Such creative collaborations are welcomed as vital for actualising the Centre’s vision and aims.

Ongoing projects include

Intellectual Disabilites

• Understanding the spiritual lives of people with profound and complex learning disabilities: a community oriented action research approach.

• Enabling Communities to meet the Religious and Spiritual Needs as expressed by People with Learning Disabilities: A Participatory Action Research Approach

Dementia

• Developing a Resource for accessing and meeting the spiritual needs of people with advanced dementia

• The Lived Experience of Dementia: Developing a contextual theology.

• Healing Garden's and the spirituality of dementia

Spirituality and Health

• Spiritual care at the end of life: a systematic review. An extensive literature review of spirituality and end of life care. This is a collaborative project with the Universities of Hull and Stafford.

• Spirituality and Breast Cancer: Assessing the role of spirituality in women recently diagnosed with breast cancer (Joint Project with Professor Steve Heys, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary breast cancer unit.)

• The spiritual needs of staff working in psychiatric care in Highland: Supporting NHS staff in Highland

• Spirituality and Ageing: implications for residential care: funded by Church of Scotland 2005-2006

• Patient Focus and Public Involvement in cancer care: an action research programme: funded by Scottish Executive 2003-2005

See also PhD research program.

Recent completed research includes:

• Religion and Autism: (An interdisciplinary symposium in collaboration with the University of Cardiff)

• Assessing the spiritual well-being of people living and working within the Aberdeen Camphill communities

• Religion and Suicide in the Highlands: An exploratory study of the role of the church in deaths by suicide in Highland, Scotland

• What do Chaplains do?

• The Spiritual Lives of people with learning disabilities: A national study

• A Space to Listen: Exploring the spiritual lives of people with learning disabilities

• Spirituality and the lived Experience of Depression: A Phenomenological Approach

• Spirituality in GP Practice

Funding

The Centre is self-funding and receives no external public money. It generates income purely through research grants and donations from supportive parties. The Centre thus far has managed research projects funded by, amongst others:

• The Scottish Executive
• The Mental Health Foundation
• Highland NHS Trust
• The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities.
• The Church of Scotland
• The Camphill Trust
• The Jerusalem Trust
• The Porticus Trust