National scholarship awarded to Staffordshire University lecturer

A lecturer in nursing has been awarded a prestigious scholarship to undertake research into understanding what can be done to help older people who neglect to look after themselves. 

Lesley Hayes, Lecturer in Nursing at the Faculty of Health has been awarded a Florence Nightingale Travel Scholarship to carry out research into self-neglect in later life.

Lesley, who will visit Universities in America and Europe, said: “Primarily the research involves examining the issue of self-neglect and social care whereby older people do not engage with healthcare services or take medication and the effect that has on their health and well being."

Research and assessment around self-neglect is aided in America due to a legal requirement to monitor and report cases. However this is not evident in the UK.

Lesley added: “To get an insight into the various research and practice areas being undertaken in America to identify, assess and intervene will be an invaluable experience. At the moment in the UK we are without a monitoring task force to identify older people who self-neglect and therefore the full scale of the problem is unknown. What we do know is that Coroners are increasingly dealing with cases where self-neglect may have been a factor in death."

A report will be presented to the Florence Nightingale Foundation at the end of the scholarship and the research will also feed into the work of the Centre for Ageing and Mental Health at Staffordshire University to promote innovation in health and social care services for older people in the UK.

Professor Paul Kingston, Director of the Centre for Ageing and Mental Health and Lesley's PhD supervisor, said: "This is an exceptional award and reinforces the importance the Florence Nightingale Foundation place on researching and understanding self-neglect in later life.

“The travel grant will enable Lesley to develop a wider understanding of self neglect in later life and its management in the USA and Europe which will offer insights’ for UK health care interventions - this expertise will be a vital component in Lesley’s PhD studies in the Centre for Ageing and Mental Health."