Dr Paula Jacobs

Teaching Fellow

Contact details

Background

I worked in social care and learning disability services for nine years before starting my PhD to explore transitions in the lives of adults with severe intellectual disabilities. I completed my PhD at the beginning of 2021.

As a researcher I am passionate about inclusive research practices and the ethics of involving people who are often deemed vulnerable or to lack capacity.

I am interested in care-relationships, how care is practiced and experienced within social care, and how wider processes and factors shape decision-making within care settings. I am experienced in using ethnography, life story research, case studies, focus groups and creative methods to facilitate interviews.

Research summary

I have worked on projects exploring the disruption of adoption and permanent fostering placements, the mental health of young people in care, with a focus on neurodiversity, and how to support couples with a learning disability when one partner has dementia.

I have expertise in conducting qualitative systematic and scoping reviews. I have used narrative, ethnography, life-story, document and case study methods.

Publications:

Karen Watchman, Paula Jacobs, Louise Boustead, Andrew Doyle, Lynn Doyle, Jan Murdoch, Jill Carson, Louise Hoyle, Heather Wilkinson, “How will we cope?” Couples With Intellectual Disability Where One Partner Has a Diagnosis of Dementia, The Gerontologist.

Paula Jacobs, Luke Power, Gavin Davidson, John Devaney, Claire McCartan, Pearse McCusker and Ruth Jekins (2023). A Scoping Review of Mental Health and Wellbeing Outcome Measures for Children and Young People: Implications for Children in Out-of-home Care. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma.

Paula Jacobs, Karen Watchman, Heather Wilkinson, Louise Hoyle and Laura McGenily (2023). Experiences of people with intellectual disability and dementia: A systematic review. Journal of Applied research in Intellectual Disabilities.

Paula Jacobs, Karen Watchman, Heather Wilkinson and Louise Hoyle (2023). Couples with intellectual disability where one partner has dementia–a scoping review exploring relationships in the context of dementia and intellectual disability. Ageing & Society.

John Devaney, Luke Power, Paula Jacobs, Gavin Davidson, Rachel Hiller, Joanna Martin, Claire McCartan et al. (2023). An agenda for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience. Child & Family Social Work.

Paula Jacobs, Ethel Quayle, Heather Wilkinson (2023). “What is my experience of what I am in relation to people who I have shared my life with for the last 34 years?”: exploring care relationships at the end of life in two life-sharing communities for people with a learning disability. International Journal of Care and Caring.

Paula Jacobs, Tim Armstrong, Kate Mearns and Maggie Grant (2022). The disruption of adoption and permanent fostering placements: a Scottish perspective, Research report undertaken on behalf of AFKA Scotland.

Paula Jacobs, Ethel Quayle, Heather Wilkinson and Ken MacMahon (2021). Relationships matter! Utilising ethics of care to understand transitions in the lives of adults with severe intellectual disabilities, British Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Edgar Rodriguez-Dorans and Paula Jacobs (2020). Making narrative portraits: a methodological approach to analyzing qualitative data, International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Paula Jacobs (2020). People, places and relationships – Stories of social capital. Report for the Office of the Chief Social Policy Adviser, Scottish Government.

Paula Jacobs, Kenneth MacMahon and Ethel Quayle (2019). Who decides? – transitions from school to adult services for and with young people with severe intellectual disabilities, Disability & Society.

Paula Jacobs, Kenneth MacMahon and Ethel Quayle (2018). Transition from school to adult services for young people with severe or profound intellectual disability: A systematic review utilizing framework synthesis, Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.

Paula Jacobs and Kenneth MacMahon (2017). ‘It's different, but it's the same’: perspectives of young adults with siblings with intellectual disabilities in residential care, British Journal of Learning Disabilities.