Fife researcher celebrates after receiving OBE

Sarah Nelson has researched and campaigned on child sexual abuse for many decades and has been a professional adviser to both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.

After moving from professional journalism to a university career her qualitative research projects with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) of Edinburgh University have included the mental health needs of female survivors, and life history research with male survivors.

She has worked closely with abuse survivors themselves and their third sector support agencies, and tried to reflect their own voices, producing accessible reports, booklets and many presentations for policymakers, practitioners and survivor activists.

Sarah said: “I’m especially pleased to receive this award because both the identification of children suffering sexual abuse in Scotland, and informed support services for adult survivors, remain very inadequate.

“If this focuses attention even in a small way on the need to improve both, I shall be delighted.”

Her academic research is reflected in research papers, book chapters and in books, which span 30 years.