Dr. Bella Vivat

An experienced researcher with considerable expertise and a long-standing interest in researching spiritual care and wellbeing in palliative care, with a substantial related publication profile. Bella Vivat is Principal Research Fellow in the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department (MCPCRD) at UCL, with expertise in a wide range of qualitative research approaches, and a substantial profile of related publications. She studied medicine for three years before moving into social science, beginning her research career with an ethnographic study of spiritual care in a Scottish hospice for her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, awarded 2004. Her central research interests are spiritual care and wellbeing, the experiences of people living with chronic and/or life-limiting illnesses, and the social construction of knowledge. Bella has twenty years' experience of research, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching of (chiefly qualitative) research design and methodology, and MSc and PhD student supervision. She has worked in five different research organisations, on a broad range of collaborative qualitative or mixed methods studies, including developing PROM tools, and exploring people’s experiences with chronic fatigue, arthritis, advanced multiple sclerosis, PSC, and with sedative medication and palliative chemotherapy. She is currently co-chair of the EAPC Spiritual Care Reference Group.