Four PhDs on offer

Here at the Association for Dementia Studies we’re pleased to say that we currently have four PhD opportunities on offer. If you’re interested in taking your studies that step further, take a look below and see if one of our PhD topics takes your fancy. Be aware that only the first one is funded, so for the others you would need to be in a position to self-fund your studies.

Funded studentship

Development and Evaluation of a ‘Best Housing’ Assessment Tool for People Living with Dementia in Extra Care Housing

This is a fully-funded, full-time PhD studentship that will seek to understand the reasons and circumstances that lead to people living with dementia moving out of Extra Care Housing, and use those findings to develop, pilot and evaluate an assessment tool. This tool would be for use by Extra Care Housing staff, family and other stakeholders to assist in making decisions about what would be in a resident’s best interests in terms of accommodation and care. For example, considering the interventions required to enable a resident to remain in Extra Care Housing and whether their needs could be better met by relocating to a different form of accommodation.

Director of Studies Dr Julie Barrett says:

“This PhD studentship is ideal for anyone interested in understanding the reasons and circumstances that lead people living with dementia to move out of extra care housing and developing a tool to assist in making decisions about the optimal time to make this move.”

Applications for this PhD close on 3^rd May, so if you like the sound of it you’ve got to get a move on. Take a look at the website for more details and how to apply.

Self-funded projects

Adoption of proprietary home and community automation technologies in support of ageing-in-place

If you’ve got an interest in technology, this PhD may be the one for you.

Technology has the potential to impact significantly on the health and well-being of people affected by dementia. For example, it could reduce social isolation and open up opportunities for engaging in life, learning and leisure. Rather than focusing on technology specifically designed for people living with dementia which some people may find stigmatising or embarrassing if it draws attention to their condition, this PhD considers the role of everyday technology as it is thought that people may be more likely to use it as part of their normal life.

This PhD study will investigate the adoption of proprietary automation technologies used in the home or in the community by people affected by dementia. Possible areas for investigation could include:

• Automation and assistance of everyday tasks.
• Cognitive support to address confusion and assist in memory recall, thinking and planning.
• Adapting the environment to account for behavioural and mood changes.
• The use of automation to support physical activity and/or health and well-being.

Director of the Association for Dementia Studies, Dr Shirley Evans, says:

“This is an exciting opportunity to join our flourishing cohort of PhD students. Everyday technology has so much potential to enhance the lives of people living with dementia but it is under-researched contributing to it not being used as widely or as effectively as it might. Come and join us at the Association for Dementia Studies and make a difference.”

To find out more about this PhD topic and see whether it could be a perfect fit for you, take a look at the website and get in touch.

Measuring the cost-effectiveness of Meeting Centre

If you’ve read the title and aren’t sure what a Meeting Centre is, don’t worry! A Meeting Centre is a local resource, operating out of ordinary community buildings, that offers on-going warm and friendly expert support to people with mild to moderate dementia and their families. At the heart of the Meeting Centre is a social club where people meet to have fun, talk to others and get help that focuses on what they need. Meeting Centres are based on research evidence of what helps people to cope well in adjusting to living with the symptoms and changes that dementia brings.

The Meeting Centres UK network is managed by the us at the Association for Dementia Studies and supports Meeting Centres to collect data. Meeting Centres can then use this data to self-evaluate, as well as inform potential funding bids to help with sustainability. The Association for Dementia Studies also manages a central repository of data from Meeting Centres across the UK.

This studentship will build on previous work to investigate what cost-effectiveness information is required by commissioners of community services, and how this information can best be captured and delivered by Meeting Centres.

Dr Shirley Evans is Director of Studies for this PhD and says:

“This is an exciting opportunity to join our flourishing cohort of PhD students. With over 70 Meeting Centres in the UK there is a vision for one in every town. Key to this is clear evidence of cost-effectiveness which is the focus of this PhD. Come and join us at the Association for Dementia Studies and make a difference.”

If this PhD catches your attention, take a look at the website for more information and details on how to apply.

Pain management for people living with dementia in Extra Care

This PhD project will build on a pilot survey, which found that pain support for people living with dementia in Extra Care Housing schemes and care homes is suboptimal to that for people in other care settings. High numbers of Extra Care Housing staff lack the skills and confidence to support people living with dementia experiencing pain and are unlikely to use guidance or pain assessment tools. Suboptimal pain support is not acceptable and all staff who are responsible for supporting the needs of a person with dementia need to be skilled in this area.

The project will work with Extra Care Housing residents living with and without dementia and compare their pain assessment and management and determine whether those with dementia receive suboptimal pain management. It will also compare residents with dementia in Extra Care Housing with those living in care homes. The PhD will investigate the causes of any differences, the impacts of these, the challenges, successes and good practices around pain management, and staff training and support needs.

Director of Studies Dr Julie Barrett says:

“This would be a great opportunity for someone interested in understanding how best to assess and manage pain in residents living with dementia in extra care housing”

Have you got an interest in this topic? Find out more and how to apply on the website.

Connect with ADS on twitter @DementiaStudies and on Facebook @adsuow We’re also on Instagram, Threads and LinkedIn so have a look and find us there too.

The Meeting Centres blanket is growing!

As we prepare for UK Dementia Congress next week, we’ve been adding to the Meeting Centres family blanket as we’re planning to display it while we’re there. It was already looking amazing when we had it at the Get Real launch event back in July, but we’re thrilled that even more Meeting Centres have been able to get involved.

Here are the new squares we’ve added: Firstly, some good news – the missing squares from the Dementia Matters in Powys (DMiP) Brecon Meeting Centre finally turned up! We’ve swapped out our makeshift ‘M’ and made sure this one completes the combined set of DMiP initials from their four Meeting Centres.

The Postgraduate Certificate 23-24 and beyond

September was a busy month for our Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Studies, and it’s not stopping there.

Firstly, we had graduation for 13 of our Postgraduate Certificate students, with many being able to attend the ceremony at Worcester Cathedral in person.

“It was an absolute privilege to read the names of our amazing graduands – they have worked so hard an deserve this success.” – Dr Shirley Evans, Director of ADS

“It was great to see so many of our wonderful graduating students at the ceremony and afterwards for a drop of something fizzy and a chat. We are all so proud of all our graduates!” – Dr Chris Russell, Course Lead

“It was so lovely to see students in 3-dimensions! There were lots of hugs, chatter and celebration and a few glassy eyed moments. It was an emotional day and really special to be able to be there in person to mark the occasion.” – Nicola Jacobson-Wright, Module Lead

Recent articles and resources

It sometimes feels like we don’t make enough of our research outputs, so this week we thought we’d sort that out. In a recent blog post we did tell you about our updated and expanded publications page, but not about what you can find there!

Recent articles

In the past few months we’ve had several journal articles on different research and education topics including Meeting Centres, our Championing physical activity course, our Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Care, and the DemECH project:

CHARM Care Home Research Study: Using research to help improve dementia care

Four care homes participated in the CHARM research project, conducting two mini-research projects each. This blog shares the experiences of Hallmark Care Home’s Anya Court Care Home in Rugby and their whole journey through the CHARM project.

Thanks go especially to Lifestyles Lead, Sue Mitchell, Home Manager Michelle Sides, Dementia Care Manager Cheryl Jones, and Dementia & Wellbeing Lead for Hallmark Care Homes April Dobson for their work as part of the Anya Court Research Working Group.

Stage 1: Find out, plan and prepare

The team at Anya Court was originally very different to the one that ended the project! Sue and April were originally joined by a different home manager, a lead carer, the hospitality lead and a family member. This team planned to implement a project called “home in time for tea” exploring the impact of switching the “big” meal of the day from lunchtime to evening time and introducing food preparation activities for the residents to get them more involved. It was hoped this might improve resident well-being and sleep. The team developed their own measurement tools and ran awareness days to let everyone know what would be happening.

Stage 2: Act and make things happen

In February 2020 they set about implementing the change and collecting data. And then coronavirus hit!

Whilst the home managed to carry on collecting data (which was an amazing feat, well done Sue!) the original plans for the change were affected because the activities to involve the residents (a big part of the switch) were just not possible under social distancing and infection control requirements.

You can read about this project, the team’s progress and some preliminary results here:

Link to project resource

When Anya Court were ready to re-engage with CHARM in late 2020, a lot had changed. They had a new manager, a dementia care manager who was due to start in the new year and only Sue left from the original team who had been waving the flag for CHARM valiantly by herself for several months! Sue, Michelle and April got together and discussed what they would like to do with their remaining CHARM project whilst they waited to be able to restart the mealtimes project when restrictions were lifted.

They were very clear that “we don’t want to hear the C-word!” (COVID) They wanted to focus on something that would help their team move on from the last 8 months. In particular, as a new manager, Michelle had lots of plans for change – particularly in relation to improving dementia care in line with Hallmark’s dementia care strategy and with a new dementia care manager joining the team (Cheryl). We therefore helped them develop a research project that would involve the team in the planned changes and help them keep track of what was working and not working.

The new research was called: “What do you need to carry out your role and improve quality for life for residents living in the dementia community”

Stage 3: Study, watch and listen

The research working group designed an in-depth questionnaire that asked their team members about their thoughts and experiences of the following parts of their work:

• feeling valued at work
• feeling involved and empowered at work
• training and support
• relationship-centred care

The team completed this questionnaire and then the findings from this were analysed to create a picture at the start of the research. The findings were also used to influence the action plan for change which would be implemented over the next 6 months. The survey would then be completed again after 3 months and 6 months to see what had changed for the team, together with some focus groups with the team.

Stage 4: Reflect, think, discuss and change

After 3 months, the project produced A LOT of data and there was a definite feeling that things had changed for the better on the dementia community. As one of the focus group participants said:

When the team compared the findings from the initial picture with the picture after 3 months this was confirmed. Improvements had occurred, but there was still some progress to be made (as they’d expected half way through their 6 month plan).

The headline findings at 3 months were:

• Our action plan has had a modest effect on improving team members’ feelings and experiences of being valued in their work. This is not as dramatic as we hoped, but this perhaps highlights that making sure people feel valued for their work is an ongoing individual issue

• Our action plan has had a modest impact on improving team members feelings and experiences of feeling involved and empowered. This has demonstrated that improving these areas is harder than we hoped, but we are making progress.

• Our action plan has been successful in improving team members’ feelings and experiences of training and support. Informal every day support appears to have been particularly improved, appreciated and impactful.

• Our action plan has been successful in improving relationship centred care, especially with regards to the experiences of residents

The five most popular words chosen by the team to describe care at Anya Court

The team wrote this project up as a final report and designed two “you said, we listened” posters to communicate their progress to the team.

Link to final report

Link to poster 1

Link to poster 2

But they’re not finished!  The research group have developed an action plan for the next 3 months and plan to run the questionnaire and focus groups again at 6 months as planned. They’ve definitely caught the research bug.

Well done everyone at Anya Court!

Christmas Quiz – just for fun

As a final blog of 2020, we’re sharing our Christmas quiz with you. members of the ADS team were asked to submit questions, so it’s a bit of an odd mix, and I’m not sure what insights it gives about us! If you’re stuck for something to do it works well over Zoom (other video conferencing platforms are available), and if it makes one person smile it was worth sharing. Enjoy, and we’ll see you in 2021.

Christmas quiz – questionsDownload

Christmas quiz – answersDownload