| Carolyn Brodribb |
 Carolyn Brodribb was born in 1948, and in 1994 became Macmillan Social Work Lecturer in Palliative Care at the University
of Plymouth. However, as a child, she had originally wanted to be an occupational therapist. Her path to social work began
when, seeking to avoid pressure to go to university, she began working with emotionally disturbed children. She finally went
to the University of North East London in 1967 to study social work where she came across Eric Lindemann's study of loss,
and began a lifelong interest in bereavement. However, despite a visit to St Christopher's in 1968-69, Carolyn Brodribb was
a general medical social worker at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1969 -71) and did not specifically work within the hospice movement
until moving, now with a husband and children, to Plymouth in 1978. Here, Carolyn Brodribb attended the inaugural meeting
of a group wishing to establish a hospice in Plymouth, and, when St Luke's opened in 1982, became the hospice's Principal
Social Worker. In position, Carolyn Brodribb taught social work students from Exeter and Plymouth Universities, as well as
caring for patients. Her interview describes the development of St Luke's, Plymouth, the differences between pioneer and second
generation professionals, her own personal experience of bereavement, and her Christian faith. In 1993, Carolyn Brodribb gained
an MA in Policy and Organisational Studies, focusing her thesis specifically on independent hospices. Through her interest
in the psychology of bereavement, Carolyn Brodribb also discusses counselling, preventative bereavement work, the Bereavement
Forum, and her work in developing bereavement services within the NHS, in the oncology department in Plymouth. Carolyn Brodribb
has also been Chair of the Association of Hospice Social Workers.
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| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 2 December 1997 |
| Interview Duration: 49 minutes |
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