Anna Crane

Anna is a first-year PhD candidate affiliated to CAMHRA – the Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action.  Anna’s research project will be an ethnographic study within the NHS, based with the Older People Community Mental Health Team in Westminster (CNWL NHS Trust). 

For the past three years, the team has been piloting a therapeutic approach to dementia care called Open Dialogue, which has previously been successful in treating severe mental health conditions such as psychosis. Open Dialogue’s reflexive and compassionate approach, which focuses on continuity of care, tight-knit teams and enabling agency and capacity within a web of relations, fits well with the challenges of dementia care. Anna will train as an Open Dialogue practitioner and join the CNWL team, working alongside them to understand the processes, challenges and potential of Open Dialogue.   

Prior to starting her PhD, Anna had a long career in publishing, working as a copyeditor and writer, especially in the areas of food, travel and health. She took a break in 2018 to complete an MA in the Anthropology of Food at SOAS and subsequently used her ethnographic skills as a researcher for St Christopher’s Hospice, investigating the dementia care pathway for people at end of life. This experience confirmed to her the cathartic power and transformative value of sharing stories.   Anna hopes her work will contribute to developing compassionate approaches to dementia care in the UK and beyond. 

• Dementia
• Dialogics
• Community
• Mental health
• Healing design
• Materiality
• Creative therapies