Dr Leigh Donovan is a social worker who over a lengthy career has developed a niche role as a clinician/researcher/educator/advocate in paediatric palliative care, end of life care and bereavement care for families following the death of their child.
She has been a long-term advocate for an Australian health system response to the care of bereaved families and was awarded a 2017 Churchill Fellowship to further this cause. She works from a collaborative practice framework acknowledging the power of multiple stakeholders in furthering a common cause. Compassion is central to her practice.
Dr Donovan is a Consultant in Thanatology, and her practice sees her working at an individual, organisational, community and structural level exploring the experience and impact of death and dying in Australia. She is the Principal of Collaboraide, a specialist consultancy that works within a capacity building framework to help improve the health and wellbeing of people facing loss, grief and isolation in the Australian community, and those who care for them.
Dr Donovan was previously Bereavement Coordinator, Queensland Children’s Hospital and Allied Health Clinical Educator with Quality of Care Collaborative Australia. She holds adjunct research positions with UNSW and QUT.
Project
The Dr Dorothea Sandars and Irene Lee Churchill Fellowship to identify and develop guidelines for best practice paediatric hospital bereavement care services
Leigh Donovan
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