Welcome!

Welcome my exciting new Wellcome Trust funded interdisciplinary project! The background of the work is that the complex relationships between humans and non-human animals in contemporary society are beginning to influence how sociological research is understood and performed, including in the healthcare context. Recent work by myself and colleagues has shown that the veterinary treatment of family pets provides a unique and relevant backdrop for researchers interested in accessing accounts of experiences, frustrations and preferences for the medical treatment of humans. This project will develop a new stream of research which applies an interspecies approach to the study of end of life care; using the differences and growing similarities between veterinary and medical care approaches to generate unique and novel conversations. The project will enable medical and veterinary healthcare professionals to share their experiences of both humans and animals entering into end of life care conversations. Researchers will explore how the capture of such novel data might develop and connect existing academic research areas and contribute to future policy discussions. Finally we will explore what such research might mean to publics and patients and how they would like to see it develop. Watch this space ....