ASSOCIATION FOR
DEMENTIA STUDIES
5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
“WE ARE COMMITTED TO A PERSONCENTRED APPROACH IN ALL OUR
WORK. THIS IS OUR ETHICAL CODE
THAT VALUES ALL PEOPLE AS UNIQUE
INDIVIDUALS, IS RESPECTFUL OF
THE PERSPECTIVE OF DIFFERENT
STANDPOINTS, AND RECOGNISES THE
INTERDEPENDENCE OF US ALL.”
Association for
Dementia Studies
ADS NEWS
2009
ADS ARRIVES IN THE WORLD!
ON 5 MAY 2009 THE ASSOCIATION FOR
DEMENTIA STUDIES OFFICIALLY CAME
INTO EXISTENCE, WITH PROFESSOR DAWN
BROOKER AS DIRECTOR SITTING AT HER
DESK. HER VISION IS FOR ADS TO “BECOME
A NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
OF EXCELLENCE IN TRAINING, EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH IN DEMENTIA STUDIES.”
IF YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A GOAL, YOU
MIGHT AS WELL AIM HIGH! THIS FIRST YEAR
WAS PLANNED TO ESTABLISH THE NEW
DEPARTMENT BUT EVENTS RATHER OVERTOOK
US AND WE WERE BUSY FROM DAY ONE!
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
NATIONAL NEWS
The first National Dementia Strategy for
England was published in February. We had
clear national objectives about what a good
service for people with dementia and their
families should look like. Professor Brooker had
worked with many others nationally to bring
the strategy to life, and the work of ADS was
securely aligned with the aims of the strategy to
help people live well with dementia.
The SCIE Dementia Gateway website was
also launched this year with members of the
new ADS team contributing as key authors
on understanding the needs of people with
dementia. We presented at the National Care
Homes Congress and UK Dementia Congress
and we played to a packed house at a PersonCentred Dementia Care Workshop for RESEC in
Truro.
We also encouraged and supported our
colleagues in Worcestershire to put in a bid to
become one of the 22 National Demonstrator
Sites for Dementia Advisors. We got funded!
The new department had truly arrived on the
national scene.
LOCAL NEWS
ADS wasted no time building strong
partnerships with local dementia providers
and commissioners within Worcestershire and
the West Midlands. The West Midlands had a
dementia strategy that pre-dated the national
dementia strategy by six months. Pauline Smith
and Karim Saad at West Midlands Strategic
Health Authority were ahead of the game
and made good use of this new academic
department opening on the patch. We joined a
number of important groups including:
•
•
•
•
Worcestershire Care Planning Pathway
Group
Worcestershire Dementia Implementation
Group (Commissioning)
West Midlands Clinical Leads Dementia
Group
West Midlands Dementia Workforce
Development
We’ve also been working on local projects
such as an evaluation of the great Friends of
the Elderly day care centre in Malvern. Kate
Read was appointed as the West Midlands lead
for Dementia UK working as a Senior Lecturer
within ADS. This gave a focus for Admiral
Nursing and cemented partnership working with
this important charity.
SEMINARS & EVENTS
From the beginning we wanted to provide a
focus for people working in dementia care.
In partnership with West Midlands SHA we
established the West Midlands Dementia
Seminar Series. We made plans to invite key
speakers on different aspects of the National
Dementia Strategy to deliver an early evening
seminar with plenty of time for questions. Our
first international visitors arrived in October
when the International Implementation Group
of Dementia Care Mapping from 12 countries
visited Worcester for the first time.
INTERNATIONAL WORK
Although based in Worcester, ADS has always
seen itself as part of developing the worldwide evidence base for person-centred care. In
the first six months Professor Dawn Brooker
was invited to speak at conferences in Ireland,
Australia, Norway, India and Belgium, and her
book on person-centred care is in the process of
being translated into Japanese. Exciting times!
HELLO TO
The core ADS team was established:
Professor Dawn Brooker
Dr Kay de Vries, Kate Read & Jenny La Fontaine
were appointed as Senior Lecturers. Gian
Fazey-Koven & Jane Little started to build the
administration infrastructure. Hazel Ratcliffe &
Dee Westwood joined us as Associate Specialist
trainers bringing a wealth of expertise to our
new training programmes for front-line care
staff. Cheryl Hudson, Roger Morris, Peter Ashley
and Rosemary Clarke helped us to keep it real by
sharing their experience of living with dementia
and their experiences as family carers.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
A busy start for ADS as we’re involved with
a number of different projects already. These
include the Enriched Opportunities Programme
dissemination with ExtraCare Charitable
Trust, research into the development of the
PIECE-dem observation framework in severe
dementia and developing and evaluating the
Worcestershire Dementia Advisor Service.
The ‘Delivering Excellence in Dementia Care
in the Acute Hospital’ programme was also
launched at Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals
NHS Trust funded by NHS West Midlands. ADS
is leading the development of the Dementia
Care Bundle and evaluation of this two-year
project.
PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS
There are chances for people to read about
ADS and the work we do as we’ve got a few
publications out there. They include:
• Person-centred communication in ‘Come
Into My World’ South Australia
• What is person-centred care in dementia?
In Mental Health Still Matters
• Vision for centre of excellence in the
Journal of Dementia Care
ADS IN NUMBERS
3 journal articles
1 book and 4 book chapters
1 report
10 UK conferences
8 overseas conferences
ADS NEWS
2010
LOCAL NEWS
ADS HAS BEEN GETTING INVOLVED WITH
A NUMBER OF UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER
DEGREE COURSES, LECTURING ABOUT
DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF DEMENTIA TO
STUDENTS ON THE PSYCHOLOGY DEGREE, PREREGISTRATION NURSING, POST-REGISTRATION
NURSING, FOUNDATION DEGREE FOR
PARAMEDIC STUDENTS, AND MASTERS IN
SOCIAL WORK.
WE CONTINUED TO WORK WITH
WORCESTERSHIRE JOINT COMMISSIONING
UNIT IN DEVELOPING THE WORCESTERSHIRE
DEMENTIA STRATEGY AND RAN EVENTS WITH
LOCAL COUNCILLORS AND NHS BOARDS
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSON-CENTRED
DEMENTIA CARE. WE’VE ALSO BEEN WORKING
WITH A NUMBER OF LOCAL ORGANISATIONS
ON AN EXCITING PROJECT WHICH AIMS
TO PRODUCE A DVD-ASSISTED TRAINING
RESOURCE ENCOMPASSING THE WHOLE
DEMENTIA CARE PATHWAY. WATCH THIS SPACE!
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
LIFT OFF! ADS IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED
31 March 2010 saw the official launch of the
Association for Dementia Studies. The occasion
was marked with the inaugural lecture of
Professor Dawn Brooker, ‘Two worlds divided
by the same language: research into practice in
dementia care.’
NATIONAL NEWS
An election and a change of government might
have been bad news for the still young National
Dementia Strategy. The All Party Parliamentary
Group on Dementia was a good vehicle for
building momentum across the political
spectrum and Professor Brooker addressed an
early meeting in 2010. In April Professor Alistair
Burns took up post as the first Dementia Tzar (or
the National Clinical Director for Dementia to
give him his official title).
SEMINARS & EVENTS
As well as the inaugural lecture, we’ve hosted
four other well-attended evening seminars as
part of the West Midlands series:
To keep ADS heading in the right direction, the
first ADS Steering Group Meeting also took
place. The group consists of a mix of university
senior managers alongside local, regional and
national experts in research and practice. Peter
Ashley who has a diagnosis of dementia and
Rosemary Clarke who cared for her mum with
dementia are also part of the steering group.
Peter Ashley, who was diagnosed with Lewy
Body Dementia in 2000 was one of the first
people with dementia within the UK to raise
awareness of the lived experience of dementia.
Peter was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree
from the University of Worcester at a ceremony
held in Worcester Cathedral. John Suchet, the
journalist and broadcaster, was also awarded
a degree in recognition of his career and his
work with Dementia UK. We were thrilled that
the work of both men has been recognised and
celebrated by the University.
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Professor Steve Iliffe, Core Business for
General Practice: The recognition of and
response to dementia
Suzanne Wightman and Micky O’Neill,
Portrait of a Life – A multi-media toolkit for
life story work
Professor Alistair Burns, What next for
dementia care? Building on the National
Dementia Strategy
Rachael Litherland, Involving people living
with dementia: How far have we come?
HELLO TO
The ADS team has grown quite quickly, and
numbers have increased since last year:
Our research staff swelled with the
appointments of Tom Porter, Nivya Krishnan,
Jennifer Bray & Heather Vickers. Sue Lillyman
from Allied Health Sciences began working with
us to develop action learning sets for acute
hospital staff. Helen Malbon became Dawn
Brooker’s trusty assistant. Karan Jutlla, having
just completed her PhD at Keele, joined us as a
new lecturer. We got our very first PhD student
Sarah Milosevic on a studentship co-funded
by Worcestershire Public Health. Helen Cain
joined us as an Associate Specialist on our everexpanding training delivery.
GOODBYE TO
Tom Porter joined us at the beginning of 2010
but within the year he was ready to go to study
for his own PhD at Keele University.
EDUCATION
We have increasing demand from organisations
who want in-depth work-force development
in dementia care. Courses have taken off this
year and we’ve been working with a number of
organisations including Craegmoor Healthcare,
Herefordshire PCT, Worcestershire Partnership
Mental Health NHS Trust, Worcestershire
County Council and Wolverhampton City
Council. The types of education courses
we’ve been running are care home training
for frontline care staff, early intervention,
leadership, commissioning and Dementia
Champions. We’re keen for our training to be
seen as Action Learning Sets, where participants
are encouraged to put their learning into
practice within the workplace and actually make
a difference.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
Three of our big projects which began in 2009
are continuing to keep us busy, with staff
working on the Dementia Advisor Service
evaluation, the PIECE-dem toolkit and the
Delivering Excellence in Dementia Care in
the Acute Hospital programme. ADS is also
evaluating the new Worcestershire Early
Intervention Dementia Service as well as
assessing the availability and provision of
training and education programmes around
dementia and end of life care.
ADS IN NUMBERS
8 journal articles
2 books and 3 book chapters
3 reports
15 UK conferences
1 overseas conference
1 public lecture
Approximately 15 training courses
run across 100 days for around 175
participants
NATIONAL NEWS
ADS NEWS
THE VARIOUS NATIONAL REFERENCE
AND IMPLEMENTATION GROUPS FOR THE
NATIONAL DEMENTIA STRATEGY CONTINUE
TO MEET AND PROFESSOR BROOKER IS ACTIVE
ON THE GROUP ON COMMISSIONING AND
WORK-FORCE AND ON THE STEERING GROUP
OF THE NATIONAL AUDIT OF DEMENTIA IN
ACUTE HOSPITALS. THE DEMENTIA ACTION
ALLIANCE WAS LAUNCHED AND ADS IS ONE
OF THE 41 FOUNDING SIGNATORIES TO THE
NATIONAL DEMENTIA DECLARATION.
2011
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
FILM PREMIERES & EU RESEARCH
The Stand By Me DVD-assisted training
resource was premiered on the 17 March at
the Artrix Theatre in Bromsgrove. With an
introduction by John Suchet, the audience
was treated to a viewing of the six films that
show examples of the impact of good and poor
communication across the dementia journey.
Many of the stars of the films, including people
with dementia and real-life professionals from
local organisations, were in attendance, as were
final year students from The Moving Image
Department at NEW College who directed,
filmed and produced the series of short films.
There was also a live performance of the theme
song for Stand By Me by module leader Sean
Macreavy and student Ben Hyett. No, it’s not
the Ben E. King version, but a song written
especially for the project.
INTERNATIONAL WORK
ADS continues to build its international
presence with different members of the team
presenting on person-centred dementia care
at conferences in Canada, New Zealand,
South Africa, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands,
Portugal and Switzerland. The benefits of early
diagnosis are being debated more widely and
ADS is successful in being commissioned by
the Department of Health to work on an EU
Joint Action Programme called ALCOVE. We’re
leading a work package around early diagnosis
and are looking forward to working with people
from 24 EU countries.
SEMINARS & EVENTS
We hosted a day workshop for over 60 people
on ethical dilemmas in dementia care and end
of life, which took place in July. It stimulated
a lot of interesting conversations and was a
successful event. John Killick, the world famous
dementia poet, also played to a full house in an
early evening seminar.
HELLO TO
Due to the increasing number of projects and
training sessions we’re involved with, the ADS
team has got even bigger this year. Dr Simon
Evans joined us as Senior Research Fellow and
David Moore as a Senior Lecturer. Isabelle
Latham was contracted as Research Associate
on the CHOICE project. Alex Cross joined us to
help us sort out the finances which are getting
increasingly complex and Debra Fox joined us
as an associate Specialist. Dr Bernie Coope who
has worked closely with us since the beginning
has been recognised formally as an Honorary
Senior Lecturer. Through the Stand by Me
programme we met June and Brian Hennell.
Brian has a diagnosis of Fronto-Temporal
Dementia and is supported by his wife June.
They have become very involved in our teaching
programmes. We also have two more PhD
students, Heather Vickers and Michal Herz.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
While the Delivering Excellence in Dementia
Care in the Acute Hospital programme at
New Cross Hospital is continuing, some of our
projects have drawn to a close this year. We’re
not slowing down though as other projects have
started up instead. As mentioned previously,
one of these is the EU ALCOVE project, but
closer to home we have the CHOICE project
which is an ambitious programme investigating
the role of care cultures in care homes. We’re
also involved in an interesting project called
Care Fit for VIPS which is looking at creating an
online toolkit with Equip 4 Change to help care
homes deliver person-centred care. That should
keep us busy for a while!
PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS
Some of our projects have come to an end and
their reports are now available. This includes:
•
GOODBYE TO
One of the founder members of ADS decided to
return to her native New Zealand, so we had to
say a sad farewell to Dr Kay de Vries, although
she will stay in touch as an Honorary Senior
Research Fellow. Nivya Krishnan also moved on
but hopes to undertake a dementia-related PhD
in the near future.
EDUCATION
Our training and education courses have gone
from strength to strength with the ExtraCare
Charitable Trust, Worcestershire County
Council, Craegmoor and Wolverhampton City
Council amongst the recipients, and we’ve
been developing our first Action Learning Set
specifically focussed on specialist practice in
acute hospitals in partnership with New Cross
Hospital.
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PIECE-dem report on observing experience
of people with advanced dementia
End of life training and education
programmes report
Dementia Advisor Service evaluation
report
Early Intervention Dementia Service
evaluation report
ADS IN NUMBERS
9 journal articles
2 books
8 reports
16 UK conferences
7 public lectures
Approximately 20 training courses
run across 120 days for around 260
participants
ADS NEWS
2012
BEING DEMENTIA FRIENDLY
WHILE ADS GETS TWEETING
AND HOPES YOU ‘LIKE’ IT
WITH THE ARRAY OF PROJECTS, TRAINING,
EVENTS AND CONFERENCES THAT WE’RE
INVOLVED WITH IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO KEEP
TRACK OF WHAT’S GOING ON IN ADS. TO TRY
AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT WHAT
WE’RE DOING AND MAKE SURE PEOPLE DON’T
MISS OUT ON BEING INVOLVED, WE’VE BEEN
DEVELOPING AND EXPANDING OUR WEBSITE
AND GIVING IT A MORE PROFESSIONAL LOOK.
WE’RE ALSO ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
WOULD YOU ‘LIKE’ TO FOLLOW US?
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
NATIONAL NEWS
The launch of the Prime Minister’s Challenge
on Dementia has focussed attention around
Dementia Friendly Communities as well as
heightening the focus on health, social care and
research. As part of the PM challenge ADS began
work on evaluating the new Intergenerational
Schools Dementia Project spear-headed by
Angela Rippon, Ian Bainbridge, Karim Saad
and Richard Hayes. How will schools tackle
the challenge of raising dementia awareness
amongst their pupils?
We are regular presenters now at all the major
national conferences on dementia and ageing
including the UK Dementia Congress and the
British Society of Gerontology conference.
Professor Brooker was invited to 10 Downing
Street to hear the PM’s commitment in person
and to see the launch of the Dementia Friends
Initiative.
LOCAL NEWS
National conferences have also become
more local, with the University of Worcester
hosting the Journal of Dementia Care Annual
Conference, and the Society for Arts in
Dementia Care’s 7th International Conference in
Creative Expression taking place in the newlyopened Hive building in Worcester. In addition,
ADS has run its own conference for University
of Worcester Nursing Students, giving them the
opportunity to hear directly from people with
dementia and their carers, as well as to take
part in workshops covering a variety of different
dementia-related topics.
SEMINARS & EVENTS
ADS got into creative therapies this year, with
two key seminars around the subject:
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Moving to Longevity – Theory and Practice
of Dance in Dementia Care: a day workshop
provided by Dr Richard Coaten
Voices and visions in creative therapies
in dementia: a day conference with
presentations from many parts of the
world including a keynote from Professor
Cathy Greenblat
INTERNATIONAL WORK
Our international presence continues to build
with ADS conference invitations coming from
Ireland, Japan, Austria, Germany and Denmark.
HELLO TO
With more long-term projects starting, our
team has grown again this year including
new people Teresa Atkinson, Nicola Jacobson,
Wendy Perry & Clare Gardiner. Isabelle Latham
also commenced her PhD, bringing our total
to four. Mike Watts joined our admin team
on a temporary contract and we liked him so
much we begged him to stay! Kate Durrant,
Carole Edwards & Danuta Lipinska joined us as
Associate Specialists to help deliver our ever
expanding education programmes.
We also have an increasing number of people
who are experts by experience teaching with us
on our Action Learning Sets. These include Andy
and Margaret Burley, Ros and Roy Dibble as well
as colleagues from the HOPE group Graham
Browne, Christine and Willem Van de Valk and
Marilyn Noble.
GOODBYE TO
This year we’ve said goodbye to Jane Little
who left our admin team to experience life in a
different culture and country.
EDUCATION
There’s no let up in the education and
training courses we’re running. The ExtraCare
Charitable Trust, West Sussex County Council,
Wolverhampton City Council, Heantun Housing,
Abbeyfields and Orders of St John Care Trust are
among the organisations we’ve worked with this
year. Our Action Learning Sets in acute hospitals
are becoming more popular with a series of
9-day courses being delivered to acute hospital
leads across the South Central region. Rachel
Thompson from the Royal College of Nursing
became a regular part of our courses.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
The ALCOVE, CHOICE and Care Fit for VIPS
toolkit projects are continuing, but we’ve also
got a whole host of other projects starting
at the moment including ASSET, Carers as
Educators, FITS and the Intergenerational
Schools Dementia Project. These cover care
in different housing settings, involving carers
in training provision, reducing antipsychotic
medication in care homes and evaluating
schemes for raising awareness of dementia in
schools, so quite a wide range. Well, they do say
that variety is the spice of life!
PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS
The Care Fit for VIPS toolkit has been launched
and received a positive reception from the
steady stream of people signing up to it. The
Delivering Excellence in Dementia Care in the
Acute Hospital project has drawn to an end,
and an interim and final report of the evaluation
findings are now available.
ADS IN NUMBERS
12 journal articles
2 books
3 reports
26 UK conferences
8 overseas conferences
5 public lectures
Approximately 30 training courses
run across 210 days for around 450
participants
ADS NEWS
2013
WRITE ALL ABOUT IT!
ADS REPORTS ARE ON
THE INCREASE
IT’S BEEN A YEAR OF WRITING FOR ADS
AS A NUMBER OF OUR PROJECTS HAVE
ENDED AND FINAL REPORTS WERE DUE.
THERE ARE NOW REPORTS AVAILABLE
FOR THE INTERGENERATIONAL SCHOOLS
DEMENTIA PROJECT, THE CARERS AS
EDUCATORS EVALUATION, EU ALCOVE
PROJECT AND CHOICE, AS WELL AS A
REPORT ON THE TRAINING DELIVERED
TO HOSPITALS IN THE SOUTH CENTRAL
REGION. WE’VE ALSO FOLLOWED UP
OUR EVALUATION OF THE DELIVERING
EXCELLENCE IN DEMENTIA CARE IN THE
ACUTE HOSPITAL PROGRAMME BY WRITING
A BOOK ON THE ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
SET FOR HOSPITAL STAFF ON DEMENTIA.
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
NATIONAL NEWS
The Dementia Action Alliance is now firmly
established with 141 national and 600 local
members, and Professor Brooker is elected onto
the DAA Board as the research representative.
We again have a strong presence at national and
international conferences this year presenting
on some of the projects that have now finished
as well as early findings from some which are
still in progress. We are still working to support
the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia
with Dr Karan Jutlla contributing to the
important inquiry into the needs of Black, Asian
and minority ethnic (BAME) people living with
dementia. This year ended with the G8 Summit
on Dementia in London. Something that would
not have seemed remotely possible 5 years ago!
LOCAL NEWS
Following its success last year, the University of
Worcester was again invited to host the Journal
of Dementia Care Conference. We continue
to work closely with local service providers to
improve the quality of care provision. Interviews
on Radio Hereford and Worcester are becoming
common requests.
SEMINARS & EVENTS
Our interest in different aspects of dementia
care is reflected in the variety of our seminars:
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ADS organised two workshops by Dr
Dalia Gottleib Tanaka and Peter Graf from
Canada on the use of creative therapies for
people with dementia.
John Killick launched his new book Living
Close to the Core of Life and provided an
insightful lecture.
Associate Professor Yun-Hee Jeon came all
the way from Sydney to visit and to deliver
a lecture Measuring quality and personcentred dementia care – insights from
three cluster randomised trials and Isabelle
Latham provided an overview from the
CHOICE research programme to a packed
lecture theatre.
Professor Brooker delivered The Annual
LEGACY - RESEC Lecture
INTERNATIONAL WORK
The EU ALCOVE Programme was presented at a
Ministerial level launch day conference in Paris
in March. This was high profile within the EU
and resulted in other European invitations both
to conferences and to be part of research bids
including JPND and Horizon 2020. Professor
Brooker’s book on Person-Centred Care
continues to be translated into many languages
with the Spanish version appearing this year.
HELLO TO
With some exciting education courses on the
horizon the ADS team has grown again to
ensure we can keep up with demand, including
additional admin support to help organise
us! Chris Russell joined the team as a Senior
Lecturer to develop a brand new Foundation
Degree course in Dementia Studies. Mary
Bruce & Christine Carter are also employed as
Senior Lecturers to further develop our Action
Learning Sets and Education programmes for
Health Care. Isabelle Latham earns promotion
to Senior Lecturer. Laura Bond joins the admin
team to ensure smooth running of our education
programmes. Charmain Nicholas, Sue PinfoldBrown and Guy Page join us as Associate
Specialists.
GOODBYE TO
One of the founder members of ADS, Jenny La
Fontaine, has left to focus on improving services
for people with young onset dementia. She’s still
based in Worcestershire and is now an Honorary
Senior Lecturer, so I’m sure we’ll stay in touch.
On a very sad note, Brian Hennell, one of our
dear friends and ‘experts by experience’ lost his
fight with cancer in July. Brian featured in our
Stand By Me films with his wife June, and both
attended the premiere back in 2011. Brian’s input
was greatly valued by ADS and we’re sure his
legacy will live on.
EDUCATION
There’s a strong education and training
programme continuing for ADS as we’re
delivering specialist and leadership courses to
organisations such as Warwickshire County
Council, Pinnacle Care, Sanctuary Care, Sandwell
and Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and
Birmingham Community NHS Trust. Lynne
Phair regularly teaches course participants
from hospitals to ‘Sit n See’! We were also
commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing
to evaluate their Leadership in Dementia
programme in Acute hospitals, and we’re in the
process of designing the brand new Foundation
Degree in Dementia Studies due to start in 2014.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
Although Stand By Me was developed as a DVDbased training resource, we’re looking at turning
it into an online e-resource. Another online
project we’ve been involved with is the Care Fit
for VIPS toolkit which we’ve been evaluating
recently and, more excitingly, we’re starting to
investigate options for creating new versions of
the toolkit aimed at different target audiences.
Our existing FITS and ASSET projects are
progressing well with lots of research activity
out in the field. We’ve also got a variety of
new projects starting up this year including
a Dementia and Sight Loss project, the RSAS
commission to determine a new service
model to support families, the Connecting
Communities Programme and an evaluation of
the work being done by Dementia Adventure.
PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS
In addition to all of our project reports, members
of the ADS team have found time to write two
articles around creative arts and ethnicity for the
Journal of Dementia Care, and the Nursing and
Health Survival Guide: Dementia Care.
ADS IN NUMBERS
7 journal articles
1 book and 1 book chapter
5 reports
29 UK conferences
10 overseas conferences
Approximately 65 training courses
run across 420 days for around 980
participants
ADS NEWS
2014
NATIONAL NEWS
HEALTH EDUCATION ENGLAND ARE WORKING
TO DEVELOP WORK-FORCE COMPETENCIES
WHICH IS VERY CLOSE TO OUR HEARTS AND
MINDS. WE HAVE A STEADY STREAM OF
VISITORS ASKING OUR ADVICE ON ALL SORTS
OF DEMENTIA RELATED DEVELOPMENTS AND
WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME AT LONDON BASED
MEETINGS. PROFESSOR BROOKER’S INTERVIEW
ON PANORAMA - BEHIND CLOSED DOORS:
ELDERLY CARE EXPOSED WAS A STARK REMINDER
OF WHY WE ARE ALL ENGAGED IN PROMOTING
PERSON-CENTRED DEMENTIA CARE.
THE ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT
DEMENTIA FRIENDLY FIVE YEARS
It feels like we are here to stay. We have a
wealth of experience now and an infrastructure
to deliver complex education and research
programmes. The University of Worcester has
also committed to becoming Dementia Friendly.
After a year of planning, the Foundation Degree
in Dementia Studies will start in September
2014. There’s been a lot of interest from
potential students so it should be a great new
addition to the University of Worcester courses
on offer.
We are also successful in being part of a
winning bid in the prestigious JPND research
call to evaluate the Meeting Centres
Support Programme (MCSP) model from the
Netherlands. MCSP is a community-based
intervention to support people with mild to
moderate dementia and their family carers.
There are over 100 Meeting Centres in the
Netherlands that have demonstrated benefits.
The aim of this MeetingDEM project is to adapt
and to evaluate the Dutch Meeting Centres
model for people with dementia and their
families in UK, Italy and Poland. This is an EU
project with local benefit in that the pilot will be
in Worcestershire.
LOCAL NEWS
Jenny La Fontaine invited ADS to host a
full-day consultation meeting for people
and local stakeholders focussing on people
who develop dementia at a younger age. We
were thrilled that the Worcestershire Early
Intervention in Dementia Service (EIDS) was
recognised by a national NHS Innovation Award.
Congratulations!
SEMINARS & EVENTS
We’ve continued with our schedule of seminars,
and so far this year have hosted:
•
•
Andy Bradley and Neil Mapes delivered a
moving and thought provoking evening
seminar on Thinking differently about
dementia.
Dr Karan Jutlla organised a day conference
•
as part of an ESRC seminar series on
Engaging black and minority mid and later
life people in research.
Professor Brooker has delivered two
lectures at The Hive so far this year. One
was part of the Professoriate Public Lecture
Series and the other was for the Diocese of
Worcester.
INTERNATIONAL WORK
While most of our work this year has had a
local or national focus, we do still have an eye
on international work. Requests for overseas
visits and conferences continue to come in, with
invitations from Denmark, Norway, Australia
and South Africa. We have also commenced a
consultancy programme with links to Cataluña.
HELLO TO
We’d like to welcome Dr Shirley Evans
who is joining ADS to work on our big new
MeetingDEM project. Michal Herz also becomes
Senior Lecturer in July to take a lead on our
education programmes.
GOODBYE TO
It’s a strange situation for ADS this year as it’s
the first time that our team has actually got
smaller! Although new team members will be
brought in to replace some people, the natural
end to a couple of project contracts means that
Wendy Perry and Clare Gardiner have moved on.
David Moore left to take up a post in dementia
training with Anchor Trust. Sarah Milosevic also
moves to pastures new in Jersey but we expect
her back to graduate as our first PhD soon!
EDUCATION
Although the new Foundation Degree in
Dementia Studies is our exciting news this year,
it’s not the only education and training going on
by any means as we’re continuing to provide our
usual range of Leadership and Specialist courses
to people working in a variety of care settings.
We are also working to develop specialist
practitioner named awards in dementia care.
RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS
Despite some projects coming to an end, we’ve
still got plenty of work going on at the moment,
including the RSAS ‘At home with dementia’
project, creating new versions of the Care Fit for
VIPS toolkit for domiciliary care and day centres,
the Connecting Communities project, and
developing Stand by Me into an e-resource with
Skills for Health. We’ve also got new projects
starting up, such as developing CHC guidelines
for the Alzheimer’s Society, the MeetingDEM
evaluation and the Orders of St John Care Trust
Admiral Nurse evaluation, so there’s no risk of
us getting bored!
PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS
A number of ADS projects have finished this
year, and reporting has yet again been a big
part of our work. Reports are available for FITS,
ASSET, the Dementia and Sight Loss project,
the Dementia Adventure evaluation, and the
RCN evaluation. A number of these will have
important dissemination activity over the next
year.
ADS IN NUMBERS SO FAR!
Up to the end of March:
2 journal articles
1 book chapter
5 reports
9 UK conferences
4 overseas conferences
Approximately 15 training courses
run across 100 days for around 220
participants
THANK YOU!
As our work expands, so does our circle of
friends, and they’re too numerous to mention.
So in order to not offend anyone by missing
them out, we’d like to say a big thank you to
everyone who has been involved in any of our
work over the past five years, and we look
forward to working with many more of you in
the future. If you want to find out more go to
our fantastic website http://ihsc.worc.ac.uk/
dementia or email us at dementia@worc.ac.uk
ASSOCIATION FOR DEMENTIA STUDIES
ADS is a multi-professional group of educationalists, researchers and
practitioners with many years of experience in the field of personcentred dementia care and support. The perspective of people living
with dementia, their families and their carers are intrinsic to the
work of ADS at all stages.
We make a cutting edge contribution to developing evidence-based
practical ways of working with people living with dementia, their
families, friends and carers that enable them to live well.
We do this primarily through research, education, scholarship and
policy advice. We draw on and contribute to the international
evidence base for person-centred dementia care. Using this evidence
we deliver education programmes that empower people to provide
skilled, competent and compassionate care.
EARLY INTERVENTIONS AND PRIMARY CARE
• Lead on Timely Diagnosis recommendations for EU ALCOVE
programme
SUPPORTING CHOICE AND CONTROL AT HOME AND IN
SUPPORTED HOUSING
• The Enriched Opportunities Programme
• The ASSET project – adult social care in housing with care schemes
• PhDs on direct payments in rural areas and on home-based support
in Israel
EXCELLENCE IN PERSON-CENTRED CARE IN CARE HOMES
• PIECE-dem observational framework for advanced dementia
• CHOICE – organisational culture and care experiences in care
homes
• ‘Care Fit for VIPS’ free web-based toolkit for care homes
www.carefitforvips.co.uk
• Specialist education modules in care home leadership and
dementia specialists
• Development of Primary Care Dementia competencies
• FITS – Focussed Interventions in Training and Support to reduce
anti-psychotic prescribing; in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s
Society
• In-depth evaluation of the Worcestershire Early Intervention
Dementia Service & the Dementia Advisor Service
DEMENTIA-FRIENDLY HOSPITAL CARE
• Specialist Education Modules in Early interventions and primary
care
• PhD research on Early Cognitive Change
• Development and evaluation of a suite of interventions including
a care bundle approach with the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals
Trust
• Steering group membership of the National Audit of Dementia
LIVING WELL WITH DEMENTIA
• Partners in NIHR Delirium Programme and PIE observation tool
• Supporting people from all communities, including BAME, to live
well with dementia
• Dementia Leadership and Specialist education modules in acute
and community hospital dementia care.
• ESRC Seminar Series: Age, Race and Ethnicity
• End of life care evaluation
• Connecting Communities Programme evaluation
• Innovative interventions to support people and their families,
including new service model for RSAS.
• Development and evaluation of MEETING DEM in UK, Italy &
Poland JPND/ESRC funded
FIND OUT MORE
For more information please contact: dementia@worc.ac.uk, call
us on 01905 542531 or visit our website at http://www.worcester.
ac.uk/discover/association-for-dementia-studies.html
• Research network and conferences in creative therapies and
dementia.
• Understanding dementia and sight loss.
www.worcester.ac.uk