I worked as an operational social worker and manager in Scotland for around twenty years and before that, as a social work assistant in Scotland and Cornwall for a further fifteen years. I have worked across most areas of social work including adult and child protection and safeguarding, care management and within the criminal court system and where I worked with serious and high-risk offenders.
I remain a registered social worker in Scotland and therefore a member of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme for adults and children.
On retiring from operational social work, I have worked independently mainly in conflict resolution and specifically mediation and in which I trained with the Society of Mediators. It was whilst doing so, that I became interested in end of life planning and the work of End of Life Doula’s and decided to become one and completed the Living Well Dying Well Doula Foundation course and on which I have continued to develop through End-of-Life Doula UK and other organisations including Pushing Up the Daisies and Death Cafe.
My passion in recognising the importance of end-of-life planning and the potential where this goes wrong for disagreement and disputes means, that I now tend to specialise in helping folk speak about and put in place effective end-of-life planning.