As 2019 rapidly draws to an end (How did that happen? I’m sure it was only May a few weeks ago!) we’re taking a brief pause to look back at some of the highlights* from the past year. Projects ending, projects starting, new education ventures, articles, conferences, special occasions and awards, 2019 has had it all.
* There’s been a lot going on this year and we don’t have time to mention it all, so apologies to anyone who feels we’ve missed something out!
Research projects
We’ve still got several research projects on the go, but this year our Namaste Care project came to an end – boo! It was a great project so we couldn’t say goodbye without a proper celebration event in September, and we’ll always have our fabulous film clips which we’re very proud of. A full version and shorter version are both available. We’ll continue to share resources via our Community of Practice, and there will be a 1-day workshop in May about ‘Implementing Namaste Care’ so although the research is over Namaste Care will continue in ADS.
We’ve also had a new project starting, so say hello to CHARM, the Care Home Action Researcher-in-Residence Model. This project has hit the ground running so I’m sure we’ll have regular updates for you throughout the coming year.
Education
Our lecturers have definitely been kept busy delivering education courses to several care organisations, and we’ve also started delivering training around Meeting Centres to help people know what they are and the practicalities of running one. Further dates are planned for April and July, so watch this space.
Our big education news though is our offer of an online Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Studies and a Postgraduate Award in Professional Development: Expert Practice in Delivering Person-Centred Dementia Care. We’ve already delivered a module specifically for Admiral Nurses as part of the PG Cert, with two further modules due to start in January!
Knowledge transfer and dissemination – articles and conferences
As highlighted in a previous blog, a big part of our work is sharing our research findings through various knowledge transfer activities. This year we’ve delivered over 70 presentations at different conferences in the UK and abroad, and been authors on around 20 journal articles! Our diaries for next year are filling up already, and we’ve got plenty more articles planned too.
Special occasions
2019 has been a special year for ADS as we celebrated our 10th birthday. We hosted a family care symposium back in June and kept the celebrations going by having another symposium about us at UK Dementia Congress in November. Obviously there was cake on both occasions!
We were also very proud to have Professor Tracey Williamson delivering her inaugural professorial lecture last month on ‘Family carers of people living with dementia: Asking about, listening to, acting upon’. A brilliant and inspiring session. (There will be a future blog about this, don’t worry)
Awards
To cap it all off, in the last few weeks we’ve been celebrating two fabulous awards. First off, Professor Dawn Brooker won the Lifetime Achievement in Dementia Care 2019 Award at the National Dementia Care Awards.
As if this wasn’t exciting enough, our work with Meeting Centres won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community. Amazing work by everyone involved, and it was great to get recognition for all their hard work.
So thank you to everyone who has played a part in making 2019 such a success. Here’s to more in 2020!
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