Dr Kellyn Lee BSc (Hons), MRes, PhD
Research Fellow in Ageing and Dementia

Dr Kellyn Lee is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and Research Fellow in Ageing and Dementia within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton. She is also Co-Director of the Doctoral Training Centre – Dementia Care.
Material Citizenship is a training programme that instils confidence into carers and their managers, leading to empowerment and the delivery of true personalised care
Kellyn’s research expertise and interests centre on moving care practices forward to a rights-based approach and creating a confident and sustainable social care workforce. Kellyn joined the University of Southampton in 2015 to undertake her doctoral research. The study was funded by the Alzheimer’s Society and focused on risk enablement in care homes. With a background in psychology and experience of conducting research in ageing and dementia, her doctoral work combined psychological ideas relating to the importance of object-person relations and sociological ideas of residential care for people with dementia.
Within her PhD Kellyn developed a conceptual framework - Material Citizenship. This focuses on functional objects as an often overlooked but crucial element in care practice. She has since designed and developed the Material Citizenship Skills Enhancement Programme for care staff which can be delivered face-to-face or via an online platform and featured in The Guardian Society. Kellyn is currently working with industry partners to roll out Material Citizenship within their care homes and domiciliary care services. To access an animation giving details on what Material Citizenship is and what it does click here.
Qualifications
PhD Health Sciences (Southampton)
MRes Science (Portsmouth)
BSc (Hons) Psychology (Portsmouth)
PhD supervision
Leah Hewer-Richards (2018 –present) FIND: an exploration of how Faecal Incontinence impacts the provision of Dementia care. Funded by the Alzheimer’s Society. Supervision team: Professor Jackie Bridges, Dr Ruth Bartlett, Dr Kellyn Lee.