Project Duration
1st April 2014 to 30th September 2015
Funder
British Academy / Leverhulme small grant
Project Staff
- Glenys Caswell (PI) 1
- Morna O'Connor1
Staff Institutions
- The University of Nottingham
Aims
To pilot sociological autopsy as a methodology to explore the phenomenon of dying alone at home.
Objectives
1. Improve understanding of circumstances of individuals who live and die alone at home.
2. Engage in critical debate with current conceptions of the ‘good death’.
3. Formulate recommendations for professionals whose work brings them into contact with people who are likely to die alone at home.
Methods
1. Conduct a pilot study to:
a. Test the utility of the sociological autopsy as methodology to explore cases of those individuals who die alone and are later found dead. This will begin with an examination of coroners’ records in 3 cases where individuals have died alone at home. Further data sources will be identified from the records and interviews sought with appropriate professionals, relatives, neighbours and/or friends in order to situate the story told in the records in the wider social context.
b. Test feasibility and acceptability of interview recruitment method by interviewing 5 individuals who live alone and have an increased chance of dying alone at home. Participants will be recruited through a gatekeeper, e.g. hospice discharge team. The acceptability of the interview guide will be explored with participants. Five health professionals will also be interviewed to explore their experience and views.
2. The final stage will be to write a funding application to carry out the full research project.
Stages of Development/Outcomes/Findings
Data collection has been completed and analysis of the findings is currently underway.
Return to NCARE
Contact the team
Literature on lone deaths
Adams, J. & Johnson, J (2008) ‘Older people “found dead” at home: challenges for the coroner system in England and Wales’, Mortality, 13(4) 351-360.
Kellehear, A. (2009) ‘Dying old – and preferably alone? Agency, resistance and dissent at the end of life’. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 4(1), 5-21.
Seale, C. (1995) ‘Dying alone’. Sociology of Health & Illness, 17(3), 376-392.
Publications
Caswell, C. & Connor, M (2015) ‘Agency in the context of social death: dying alone at home’, Contemporary Social Science Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences,