News Archive 2018
Interested in participating in research?
Join Dementia Research (JDR) is a website that helps people who would like to participate in dementia research to register that they are interested, so that researchers in universities and health and social care can contact them about research that they might be interested in. There is lots of information on the website to help you decide if you would like to do this.
The website also contains lots of news about studies that are taking place as well as research findings.
Are your environments dementia friendly?
The King's Fund Environmental Assessment Tools - Care Home Assessment Tool, Housing Assessment Tool, Health Centre Assessment Tool, Hospital and Ward Assessment Tools
The Association for Dementia Studies (ADS) is pleased to let you know that the Environment Assessment Tools, which were developed by The King’s Fund, can now be downloaded from the Association for Dementia Studies webpages by following the link below.
King's Fund environmental assessment tool
The pages include a brief summary of their development and how to use the assessment tool. You can also download the Alzheimer’s Society booklet based on the assessment tools which was designed to help people living at home with dementia make changes to their accommodation.
If you would like to hold a workshop for your organisation or have an expert visit your premises to help you to conduct your assessments, please email dementia@worc.ac.uk
Dementia 2020 Citizens’ Engagement Panel
The Department of Health for England is looking for people living with dementia and/or their carers to become members of this Panel during the next two years. Its aim is to inform the Government as to whether their plans for dementia care and support are making a difference to people’s lives.
In 2015 the 2020 Dementia Challenge stated its aim to make England the best place in the world to live well with dementia. The Government believes it is critical to gather the views of people who have received a diagnosis of dementia and their family carers and has asked Opinion Research Services (ORS), an independent research company, to recruit to the Dementia 2020 Citizen’s Engagement Panel.
Members will be invited to respond to surveys and some will also take part in group discussions or interviews about their direct experiences of dementia services and support.
The RSAS is looking for dementia carers
The RSAS is creating a National Dementia Carers Centre and is in the process of designing and piloting some innovative residential programmes for carers. They need carers to help with some market research and then later in the year and during 2018/19 to attend their programmes. Each programme runs for three consecutive days ( 2 nights away from home). The programmes are free at this stage, so all accommodation and food is paid for in addition of course to the actual attendance at the programme. The Association for Dementia Studies will be collaborating to design a robust evaluation of the pilot programmes.
Do you know of any individual carers or ready-formed carers groups who might be interested in helping with the market research and/or with piloting the programmes? If so, please contact Hazel May, Dementia Carers Services Lead for the Royal Surgical Aid Society.
How has the field of dementia care changed in the past 30 years?
In this article, Professor Dawn Brooker writes for us on the challenges and achievements of 30 years of dementia care. What has changed and what still remains to be done?
TAnDem PhD update
TAnDem Doctoral Training Centre
We are pleased to report that Emma Broome, TAnDem Doctoral Training Centre student, has successfully completed her PhD viva, held on 26th March. Emma’s research explored the role of care staff in creative arts interventions in residential care homes, and involved working with artists and care homes in Nottingham who were taking part in the Baring Foundation-Arts Council funded Imagine Arts programme. The research has led to five published papers and Emma has presented her work at several conferences in the UK and in Europe. We wish to thank Emma’s examiners who were Dr Hannah Zeilig (University of the Arts London) and Dr Adam Gordon (University of Nottingham). The examiners praised Emma for defending her thesis well and for her obvious engagement with and passion for her work. Emma has to complete some corrections to the thesis in the next three months and hopes to graduate in the summer.
Emma is the second student to pass her PhD Viva, Emily Cousins who passed her examination on 25th October 2018.
Major National Lottery grant awarded by the Big Lottery Fund
The Association for Dementia Studies has been awarded a National Lottery grant from the Big Lottery Fund. The project will run from 1st Sept 2018 to 31st August 2021. The aim is to help establish new Meeting Centres in different parts of the UK to work with their communities to support people and families directly affected by dementia.
This funding will enable us to build real capacity across the UK so that Meeting Centres can form a backbone of community-based active support to people and families across the country. By working together with early adopters in their communities and with national influencers, UK MCSP will attain the national visibility, momentum and traction to bring future generations of Meeting Centres on board.
ADS was a co-investigator on a successful research project, MEETING DEM, that took the learning from the Netherlands to set up Meeting Centres in the UK, Italy and Poland and to evaluate their impact. As part of the project two pilot demonstrator Meeting Centre sites were established in central England in semi-rural market towns. These have now established themselves as charities since the research funding ended in August 2017.
With this funding we have a unique opportunity to develop a sharing of the learning across early adopters of the Meeting Centre model in the UK from different regions and jurisdictions as well as from organisations of different types such as housing associations, faith groups and day centres who could be well placed to build Meeting Centres from their existing provision.
For more information please see the press release and this page
The Dementia 2020 Citizens’ Engagement: Making England the Best Place in the World for Dementia Care
Have you, or has somebody close to you, been diagnosed with dementia in the last few years? If so, we’d really like to hear from you!
We are inviting people with a dementia diagnosis, or their main carer (either family or friend) to complete a short questionnaire about your experience of living with dementia. This is an important opportunity for you to share your experiences and maybe help shape and improve services in the future.
This questionnaire asks you about your experiences of day-to-day care and independent living for the person with dementia and at the end, we will give you the opportunity to sign up to receive further questionnaires in the future.
If you would like to complete this questionnaire and help with this important study, please go online to www.opinionresearch.co.uk/dementia2020panel. You can also view previous reports and see what other people are saying about their experiences.
If you would prefer to receive a questionnaire in the post, please give us a call and we would be happy to send you one or answer any questions you may have. Please contact Claire Thomas at ORS on 01792 535 337 or claire.thomas@ors.org.uk, or Daniel Morris at ORS on 01792 535324 or daniel.morris@ors.org.uk .
This project has been commissioned by the Department of Health for England and the work is being carried out by Opinion Research Services (ORS), an independent organisation.
Thank you for your help and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to give us a call.