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Death is a universal experience; how we die is not.

Despite advancements in medical care, significant disparities remain in the accessibility and quality of end-of-life care based on socioeconomic status, geographic location, ethnicity, and other social determinants. This panel will explore these inequalities and the diverse factors that influence how individuals experience their final days.

Drawing on insights from leading experts in palliative care, social research, and end-of-life studies, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized communities and the steps needed to ensure equitable end-of-life care for all.

After the conclusion of the panel event, Dr Richards, the curator of 'The Cost of Dying' display, will give a short introduction to mark its opening. The IF would then be delighted to welcome you to a drinks reception from 7.00pm - 8.00pm to view the display in West Court. 

About the speakers

Prof Stephen Barclay is Professor of Palliative Care at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on General Practitioners and District Nurses and medical student education in Palliative Care. He works clinically as a General Practitioner and in the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge as Honorary Consultant Physician in Palliative Care. He is Specialty Director for Palliative Care in the Cambridge medical school and over recent years has overseen considerable expansion of the curricular time allocated to Palliative Care, which is now also regularly examined in the students’ Finals exams.

Dr Glenys Caswell is an independent social researcher and death studies scholar. She is interested in how we manage dying and death as a society. Her main research focuses are dying alone, how people experience time in relation to death and dying, and autonomy in making choices about the end of life. Between 2010 and 2021, Dr Caswell was employed in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham, first as a research fellow, then from 2016 as a senior research fellow. She has worked on a Marie-Curie funded project on ‘Exploring death and dying in the UK: patient, family and public perspectives’ and on a National Institutes for Health Research funded project on ‘Managing medicines for patients with serious illness being cared for at home’. She was Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme Trust funded project Exploring the Social Management of Lone Deaths, which formed the basis for her first book, Dying alone: Challenging assumptions. She is currently working on her third book which explores the impact that ageism and risk have on the choices available to older people, should they require care or support.

Dr Naomi Richards is a Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Director of the End of Life Studies Group at the University of Glasgow. She is a social anthropologist by training and specialises in end of life studies as well as visual and ethnographic methods. She was Principal Investigator for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded (2019-2023), a qualitative visual methods project aiming to uncover the reasons for unequal access to home dying for people experiencing poverty and deprivation. Dr Richards has also been funded by the ESRC to research the assisted dying debate, and by Wellcome to research the relationship between assisted dying and palliative care.

"'It comes to us all': Death and dying" series

This event is part of an ongoing series on Death and Dying taking place at the Intellectual Forum in October and November. Find out more about the series.