Research news

Researchers from the OU's Faculty of WELS are investigating how self-managed abortions relate to social connectedness and issues of reproductive control and autonomy. A new paper examines the experiences of self-managed abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to support available from professionals, family and friends. 

The Open University (OU) has embarked on a groundbreaking study examining the impact of the Medical Examiners Service on families coping with loss.

Research at the OU finds that online dancing for unpaid adult carers proves beneficial to their mental and physical health.

The search for innovative solutions to cater for the UK’s population is on the rise as our healthcare systems experience ever increasing pressure. Researchers at the OU have called for further exploration in assisting older people in their daily lives, specifically via the use of remote monitoring technologies and smart homes.

Dr Erica Borgstrom has been promoted to Professor of Medical Anthropology, within the OU’s Faculty of WELS. Erica’s specialist area in research and teaching is death and dying, with an emphasis on end-of-life care. She is the lead for the interdisciplinary Open Thanatology research group, which educates on death and dying.

From the emerging field of Raciolinguistics, new research from the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics will investigate the relationship between language, race and cultural appropriation through the use of Jamaican Patois.

Not enough is being done across the UK to support parents, children and young people experiencing family imprisonment according to new research by The Open University’s Children’s Research Centre and Worcestershire charity YSS. 

Researchers at the OU have created a grab and go guide to support providers of palliative and end of life care services. The guide centres around the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: a national framework for local action, a framework which presents an overarching vision, six ambitions and eight foundations to help local health and social care leaders build accessible, responsive, effective, and personal care at the end of life.

A new toolkit to provide practitioners with the information they need to implement ‘relational care’ in practice with older people in a range of care settings has been launched by Dr Manik Gopinath and Professor Mary Larkin at an event hosted at the House of Lords on 17th May, attended by 120 delegates. 

Each year, OU PhD students have the chance to make a cake that represents their studies for the annual Graduate School ‘Bake Your Research’ competition. We caught up with previous contestants from the Faculty to see where they are now.