People

 

Helping shape the future of social care

Rose Matthews from the University’s Research and Enterprise Office has been appointed to the Standing Commission on Carers for a three-year term.

The Standing Commission on Carers (SCOC) was established by the Department of Health in December 2007 at the request of the Prime Minister. It is an independent advisory body, providing expert advice on progress in delivering the National Carers Strategy.

Rose, who will continue in her University role as a Funding and Business Development Manager, is a qualified social worker and former social work lecturer at the University of East Anglia and the Open University.

In these roles Rose developed an interest in the experiences of informal carers, and she also gained insights into the challenges facing carers through supporting a partner with severe mental health problems, and through the experiences of her wider family.

Rose was keen to join the SCOC because she agrees with its Chair, Dame Philippa Russell, that this is ‘a unique and probably “once in a life time” opportunity to contribute to the national debate about the future shape of social care in this country.’

Obituary
Dan O’Neill

Dan O’Neill, Lecturer in the School of Health and Human Sciences, died peacefully on 19 August after a year-long fight against cancer. He will be greatly missed by both colleagues and students.

Dan first came to the School in 2000 as a PhD student and his many talents meant that he was soon appointed to a variety of positions including Research Officer, Teaching Fellow, Senior Teaching Fellow and subsequently Lecturer.

Dan had a calm temperament and took everything in his stride. His genial nature and gentle sense of humour made an impression on everyone he met - from new undergraduates to chief executives of NHS Trusts. His gift for connecting with people made him an excellent ambassador for both the School and the University.

Dan was an early adopter of online learning and for many years he was a key link between the School and distance learning students. Many never met him face-to-face but still remember his helpfulness and expertise. He was an enthusiastic teacher who had a special skill for fostering the same enthusiasm in his students. As a researcher, Dan’s passion was for qualitative methodologies, most recently sensitively interviewing young ex-soldiers about their mental health. He maintained his interest in healthcare research and qualitative methods throughout his illness, challenging the robustness of quantitative measures of patient satisfaction which didn’t allow him to express his specific frustrations, such as the constant disturbance caused by bleeping of patient alarms!

Dan faced his illness with courage, honesty and openness, and he stubbornly refused to give in to the illness. He maintained contact with work colleagues throughout, dropping in to work for a coffee when he was well enough, and encouraging colleagues to visit him at home or in hospital when he was not.

We all knew that Dan’s family was the centre of his life. He is survived by his wife Carol and his two daughters to whom we extend our deepest sympathy.

Colleagues from the School of Health and Human Sciences

Obituary
Dennis Marsden

Dennis Marsden, a former professor in the Department of Sociology, died peacefully on 6 September in Chichester Hospice with his wife, Jean Duncombe, by his side.

Dennis came to Essex in 1965, one year after the University opened. He came from the Institute of Community Studies to become a Joseph Rowntree Research Officer working with Peter Townsend, the founding professor, on the influential project Poverty in the UK. In 1968, he became a lecturer in the Department where he taught the sociology of education and pioneered the hugely successful MA in Social Service Planning. In the late 1970’s he became Head of the Department. He retired in 1999 after 35 years in the department.

Perhaps his most celebrated work was his first which he co-wrote with Brian Jackson in 1962. Education and the Working Classes is a true classic of British sociology, telling a story that remains relevant today: of how the middle classes fare so much better than the working class in education. In this book he tells how a few working class kids were able to progress to grammar school, university and ultimately middle class lifestyles and incomes - though not without difficulties. The book is written in a very clear and down to earth language - full of first hand quotes - from the 88 students who made it, both boys and girls. It became an academic bestseller; Dennis became a national name in educational circles and for several generations it was the most influential book in thinking about class and education impacting thousands of lives.

Subsequently, Dennis studied women having difficulties in life. He wrote one of the first books on single mothers (Mothers Alone), and pioneered research on battered wives and married daughters caring for their elderly mothers. He also produced a fascinating study of unemployment with photographs by Euan Duff (Workless). In later work, with David Lee and Penny Rickman he focused on Youth Training Schemes. He met Jean Duncombe during this project who became his loving partner (eventually wife) for the rest of his life, and with whom he worked on his last major project on love and coupledom.

Throughout all his work was a triple concern. He was always concerned about inequalities (class obviously, and more controversially, women). His methodology was nearly always that of an intense qualitative interviewer - he was a stern critic of the dominance of quantitative work. And overall he was passionate about sociology being concerned with the structural basis of inequalities and the need for social change. In his later life he became disillusioned by both the direction sociology was taking, and the direction of the Labour Government. He was never interested in sociological fads or New Labourism.

He was a keen ornithologist, a very accomplished photographer, a lover of classical music and a very private man. He never quite lost his working class Yorkshire bluntness and always called a spade a spade. His middle years after divorce were very difficult ones. But he later found a soul mate in Jean Duncombe with whom he lived happily for 23 years.

Professor Ken Plummer, Department of Sociology

Also in the printed October edition of Wyvern:

• Strathclyde honour for Essex graduate
• Film talk for local children
• Conference celebrates contribution of leading psychoanalyst
• Charity efforts