Nicola Jacobson-Wright

Dementia Practice Development Coach - Association for Dementia Studies

Association for Dementia Studies

Contact Details

Nicola Jacobson-Wright joined the Association for Dementia Studies in 2012 as a Dementia Practice Development Coach to work on the FITS into Practice study, reducing antipsychotics in care homes. She has continued to work across various teaching and research projects for the department. She is passionate about teaching to influence positive change for people with dementia. She has a particular interest in translating research into practice and in the use of creative arts.

Nicola has professional training as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist. Her employment background has been in care, care management, delivering community dementia services and creative therapy. Alongside her work, at the University she is the Director of Dance & Dementia C.I.C. a not for profit organisation providing Dance Movement Psychotherapy and therapeutic movement activities for people affected by dementia.

Qualifications

MA Dance Movement Psychotherapy (2007) Goldsmiths, University of London (Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist)
BA Hons History/Philosophy (2000) Lancaster University

Teaching Interests

Nicola is an active member of the teaching team and delivers diverse training on a number of commissioned courses and university programmes. She is currently the Module Lead on the following modules:

MDEM4001: Person-Centred Leadership: the VIPS Approach
MDEM4003: Expert Practice in Delivering Person-Centred Care

Knowledge Transfer:

Nicola has developed and delivered training for a wide range of different care providers, including care homes, hospitals, domiciliary and extra care settings. She has been involved in creating handbooks for multiple courses as well as developing guidance, an online community of practice and film about Namaste Care to enhance understanding and share experience from the research findings.

Research Interests

As a Practice Development Coach, Nicola has taken a key role in developing materials and teaching on various research projects, including Namaste Care and Meeting Centres. Nicola developed teaching programmes for the FITS into Practice study which now forms an advanced practice post-graduate module at ADS.

Completed projects:

Nicola has worked on the following research projects in a Practice Coach capacity:

Nicola has worked on the UK Meeting Centres Support Project (UKMCSP) as a Dementia Practice Development Coach, developing and delivering training in-person and online.

Namaste Care Intervention UK: Delivering Excellent Care Every Day for People Living with Advanced Dementia. Alzheimer's Society Implementation Research grant. 2016-19 Namaste Care UK Implementation Research

MEETINGDEM: Adaptive Implementation and Validation of the positively evaluated Meeting Centres Support Programme for people with dementia and their carers in Europe. EU JPND (ESRC) 2014-2017 MEETINGDEM Meeting Centres UK

Implementation and field testing of Focused Intervention for Training of Staff (FITS) programme in over 100 early adopter care homes.

Professional bodies and experience

Nicola has worked for over 20 years in health and social care settings, including management, particularly working with people living with dementia. She is an experienced Dance Movement Psychotherapist specialising in working with people affected by dementia. She is registered with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy UK and in 2014, founded the company Dance & Dementia C.I.C.

Professional Memberships

Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMP UK)

Publications and Dissemination

Journal articles

Latham, I., Brooker, D., Bray, J., Jacobson-Wright, N. and Frost, F. (2020). The Impact of Implementing a Namaste Care Intervention in UK Care Homes for People Living with Advanced Dementia, Staff and Families. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(16), 6004

Brooker, D., Latham, I., Evans, S., Jacobson, N, Perry, W., Bray, J. Ballard, C., Fossey, J. & Pickett, J (2015) FITS into Practice: Translating research into practice in reducing the use of anti-psychotic medication for people living with dementia in care homes. Aging and Mental Health. Available online: DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2015.1063102

Brooker, D., Latham, I., Jacobson, N., Perry, W. & Evans, S. (2014) “FITS into Practice” Developing Dementia Specialist Care Homes Summary Report. University of Worcester

Coaten, R. & Jacobson, N. (July 2011) Dance Movement Psychotherapy as a ‘Golden Thread of Remembrance’ and a Key to Communication. Signpost Journal.

Book Chapters

Jacobson-Wright, N. (2020). The use of Music to Inspire Dance and Movement. In: Richards, C. (2020). Living Well with Dementia Through Music, Jessica Kingsley, London

Conference Presentations

Jacobson-Wright, N. (2019), Training and Support for Namaste Care Intervention UK. Namaste Care Celebration Event, Worcester

Jacobson-Wright, N. & Bruce, M. (2019), Movement for well-being workshop. UK Dementia Congress, Doncaster

Jacobson-Wright, N. & Wray, F. (2018), Namaste Care. 13th UK Dementia Congress, Brighton

Brooker, D. Jacobson, N., Perry, W., Latham, I., Evans, S. (November, 2014) FITS into Practice: The role of the Dementia Practice Development Coach and the Dementia Care Coach, UK Dementia Congress, Brighton, UK

Brooker, D. Jacobson, N., Perry, W., Latham, I., Evans, S. (October, 2014) FITS into Practice: The role of the Dementia Practice Development Coach and the Dementia Care Coach, Alzheimer Europe Conference, Glasgow, UK

Jacobson, N., Latham, I. (July 2014) Person-Centred Care as an Alternative to Antipsychotics. Alzheimer’s Society Research Conference, Nottingham.

Jacobson, N., Latham, I. (May 2014) Implementing FITS into Practice. The Alzheimer’s Show, Olympia.

Jacobson, N., Knights, C., Smith, S. (Nov 2013) Dance and Movement Therapy in a Specialist Hospital Setting. UK Dementia Congress, Brighton, UK

Jacobson, N. (Nov 2013) Dance and Movement with People Affected by Dementia. Swindon Dementia Conference (Swindon NHS CCG and Borough Council), Swindon, UK

Jacobson, N. (Nov 2012) Creating a Sense of Community through Circle Dance. UK Dementia Congress, Brighton, UK

External Responsibilities

Founding Director of Dance & Dementia C.I.C.