Professor Dr. Deborah O Connor

Biography

Deborah O'Connor has over 30 years of direct professional social work practice, with a focus particularly on aging and healthcare. She has an extensive background in consulting on complex cases involving decision-making capacity, abuse, neglect, and self-neglect. As the founding director and current co-director of the Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia (CRPD), she leads an interdisciplinary research center that seeks to understand and support people with dementia and their family caregivers. O'Connor is also a founding member of the Citizenship Dementia International Research Network. Throughout her career, she has conducted significant research on social work practices in the field of aging, especially in relation to dementia, personhood, and citizenship. She emphasizes the importance of examining the interplay between personal experiences and socio-political contexts in her teaching and research. O'Connor's research includes projects funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and encompasses various themes such as social citizenship, stigma, and lived experiences of individuals with dementia. Her publications cover a broad array of topics related to aging and social work, and she has supervised numerous graduate students and research projects.

Research Interests

Experience