Holly Symonds-Brown, PhD, RN

Area of Study / Keywords

care in the community care infrastructure dementia family care practices mobilities

About

I have worked as a nurse in mental health and addictions for many years in many settings and have always been interested in formal care practices and their fit with people's everyday life.

Research

As an early career qualititative researcher, my work is focused on how care infrastructures shape everyday life of people who are marginalized due to cognitive or mental health differences.  I am particulary interested in how the mundane spaces of everyday life and care create possibilities for who people can be and where they can go. Most of my current work is related to life with dementia in the community. My work uses critical theory and theoretically informed ethnography to re-think taken for granted ideas of care and social inclusion.

Current Projects

Dementia and Mobilities of Everyday Life in Public Spaces (SSHRC Insight Development Grant- Priniciple Investigator)

A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Mobilities & the Risk of Getting Lost  for People Living with Dementia (Faculty of Nursing Endowment for the Future Fund- Principle Investigator)

LIVinG with ChrONIc cancer TrEatments (LONGEVITI) (SSHRC Insight Development Grant - Co-Investigator)

A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Youth on Waiting Lists for Mental Health Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic (CIHR broader impacts of COVID-19 grant- Covid impact-Co-Investigator) 

Strengthening Unpaid Care Mobilization in Canada’s Social Welfare State  (SSHRC Insight- Co-Investigator)

Teaching

I teach mental health nursing (Nurs 327/437) in the undergraduate program and Advanced Nursing Inquiry (Nurs 601) in the doctoral program.

I am accepting graduate students interested in studying social health of people living with dementia at home or using critical theory to explore care infrastructure for marginalized populations.

NURS 327 - Mental Health and Wellness in Nursing

This course in mental health provides opportunities to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes to promote wellness, through safe, ethical nursing practice, in a variety of contexts. The focus will be mental well-being throughout the lifespan. Learning experiences will provide students an understanding of the mental health nursing process. Clinical hours listed are the total number of hours and will be offered over 6 weeks. Note: Available only to nursing students in the Collaborative/Honors Program or Bilingual Program. Prerequisites: NURS 216, NURS 224, and NURS 225.

NURS 601 - Advanced Nursing Inquiry

The purpose of this course is to foster advanced scholarly inquiry and to assist students to understand, position, and defend their research theoretically and methodologically in the context of multiple perspectives and different theoretical standpoints. Emphasis will be placed on the diverse but distinctive nature of nursing inquiry created through engagement of multiple communities within health related contexts.

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