NEWSLETTER/
SPRING/SUMMER 2019
ISSUE 5
Welcome to our Spring/Summer 2019 newsletter! We have had a busy few months at the Salford Institute for Dementia (SID) with new staff and students joining us and a refresh of our areas of work. Part of this has involved working with our Dementia Associates to review our thematic areas of work. We have renamed these: Creativity, Environments, and Technologies. User-led partnerships has become an overarching area of our work, in the same way as education, research, and knowledge translation. In this way we are acknowledging our primary concern to work in partnership with people living with dementia, care partners and others working in the dementia field. Our leadership team has also evolved with this refocus. We are often asked who does what in the team. So, it may be useful to remind everyone here. The Institute leadership team is directed by myself, Anthea Innes, and I am supported by a leadership team drawn from across the university. The current leadership team comprises: Prof Anya Ahmed (lead for user-led partnerships), Prof Andrew Clark (lead for research), Dr Gemma Lace (lead for knowledge translation and public engagement) and Dr Natalie YatesBolton (lead for education) with our theme leads Prof Malcolm Granat (lead for technologies), Dr Kristen Hollands (lead for environment), and Dr Jack Wilson (lead for creativity). A group of Dementia Associates support and guide us in the development and running of the Institute. In January 2019 we held our annual planning day which included a contribution from our Dementia Associates who hosted a session encouraging us all to place the voices and needs of people living with dementia at the centre of our research, education and knowledge translation activities. Our Dementia Associates have gone from strength to strength in their contributions to the work that we do together, and we are close to completing a 12 month evaluation of this work which we will report on in the next newsletter.
We are delighted that two of our colleagues have had success in their doctoral studies focussing on Dementia. Our Community Engagement Officer Sophie Bushell, registered at Bournemouth University, successfully defended her thesis in October 2018 and a new Lecturer in the nursing directorate of the School, Lesley Jones, registered at the University of Manchester, successfully defended her thesis in December 2018. Congratulations to Sophie and Lesley! The week of the 20th May has become synonymous with raising awareness about dementia. Last year, The Alzheimer’s Society shifted the focus from awareness to action and Dementia Action Week was borne. The name change reflects our belief that more direct action needs to be taken to create the change that people living with dementia want and need. This year we will be hosting a range of activities for everyone including people who have an interest in dementia, carers, and people living with dementia. The theme of our events is Creativity, with a focus on the role creative pursuits can play in living well with dementia. There will be workshops hosted by musicians, clowns, photographers and writers as well as evening events including special guest speakers and performers. So, whatever your role or experience with dementia, do come along because it’s set to be an excellent week. The key dates for SID’s events are Monday 20th, Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd of May. Check our social media channels for further details and be sure to sign up because spaces will be limited. I and the team look forward to seeing many of you then.
Professor Anthea Innes Coles-Medlock Director, Salford Institute for Dementia
SPOTLIGHT ON MEMBERS OF THE TEAM/ We are pleased to welcome a new patron as well as three new colleagues to the Institute: CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON/ Christopher Eccleston has supported our work for the last two years and contributed to the opening of our Dementia Hub, making a media splash in 2017. His father had dementia and he is a well-known public speaker on the subject of both his father’s dementia and his mother’s role as his carer. We are delighted that Christopher has agreed to be the Patron for our Institute and look forward to welcoming him to Salford University again during Dementia Action Week in May 2019.
DR KRIS HOLLANDS/ Kris is our new Environments theme lead. Kris began her research training in Schelgel Villages care homes in Canada where she was a clinical placement student working on a project to determine if personalised exercise for residents improved their independence in activities of daily living. Following this first experience in research, her interests in how to improve physical activity and independent mobility in older adults began to grow. After moving to the UK she coordinated a large study evaluating physiotherapy and occupational therapy for care home residents and completed her PhD which sought to understand why stroke survivors have difficulty changing their walking patterns in response to the environment (as is necessary to be independently mobile in busy, cluttered communities). Her research at the University of Salford aims to improve and maintain independent mobility for older adults in all care settings.
DR SARAH SMITH/ Sarah is a Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust funded psychosocial dementia researcher committed to exploring ways that enable people living with dementia and those in supporting roles to live as well as possible. Sarah has worked with people along various points of the dementia pathway, from people receiving a diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) through to people who have been living with a diagnosis for a decade or more, engaging people living at home, in day centres and residential settings. Achieving a 1st class honours in Psychology in 2010, Sarah went on to complete an ESRC funded PhD in Applied Health Research in the School of Health & Related Research at the University of Sheffield in 2015. Director of SID, Anthea Innes, was the examiner for Sarah’s PhD viva, so it is no surprise that their research perspectives are closely aligned. Sarah began her role as a Research Associate in the SID in January 2019. A large part of Sarah’s role is to evaluate the groups that take place in the Dementia Hub, including SID’s Café, the Good Life Club and the Associates Panel.
DEXTER ROBINSON/ Dexter joined SID in March 2019 on a one-day secondment from Aspire. He is one of the community engagement workers who will be working with us, primarily on Tuesdays, while Sophie is away on maternity leave. Dexter will help to run the activities here at the hub and also promote the dementia hub within the local community. Dexter is from Liverpool and is a keen Liverpool FC supporter. His background is in social care and he has been a support worker for 29 years, which coincidentally is the same length of time since The Reds won the Premiership. Dexter is excited to be working with us and helping to develop the activities like the Good Life Club. His main passion is technology and computers and we look forward to him bringing his wealth of knowledge to the Hub.
We also said goodbye to two Institute supporters whom we were privileged to have working with us in our formative stage of development: Hazel Blears and John Zeisel. HAZEL BLEARS / From the very beginning of SID Hazel Blears has offered her encouragement and support to the academics at the university working in the dementia field. Hazel’s experience as a member of parliament and chair of the All Party Dementia Working Group has ensured that the work of the Institute has always been closely aligned to policy developments; informed by and able to inform the national approach to supporting people with dementia and their carers. Hazel has shared how her Mum’s story of living with dementia has been the powerful motivating experience behind her personal commitment to making a difference to people’s experience of living with dementia. All of us at the Institute have valued the supportive and encouraging relationships we have had with Hazel and hope that these continue even though her official role with the Institute has ended.
JOHN ZEISEL/ John Zeisel was a visiting Professor in the School of the Built Environment when he hosted a Florence Nightingale Foundation Travel scholarship placement for Natalie Yates-Bolton in his assisted living centres for people with dementia in the USA. The collaboration with John strengthened the connection between the School of the Built Environment and the School of Health and Society at the time when the cross-university Dementia Design Group was developing into SID. John’s approach to supporting people with dementia and their carers, ‘I’m Still Here’ and his approach to developing the evidence base for dementia friendly design underpinned much of the work undertaken by the Institute. John quickly became a valued friend and colleague to the team, and we have benefitted from his international perspective in our formative years.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE HUB?/ We are passionate about involving everyone impacted by dementia in our activities. We are proud to have the support of a panel of voluntary Dementia Associates who provide advice on the research, education, outreach and support activities we do. In each newsletter we introduce different members of this panel as a way of celebrating their positive influence on our work. LIZ AND MIKE BROOKES/ Mike and Liz became Dementia Associates in March 2018. Their involvement with the institute began by attending the monthly Music Café; they now attend all the groups at the Dementia Hub. Mike was a pilot in the Royal Air Force for 20 years. He began his service as an electronics officer, flying at the back of a Vulcan Bomber and even began piloting fighter jets. Being a pilot has taken him all over the world. He once flew the length of Australia, a journey that took him six hours to complete and remembers being astonished at the vastness of the country. When he left the air force Mike set up his own business in lab consumables before becoming a works manager. He feels he has had an exciting and varied career. Liz and Mike met in the 1990’s when he was her lodger. It was possibly not the most obvious match for, while he was a pilot, she was protesting at Greenham Common! However, like the best romantic stories, they fell in love and married in 1993, they have recently celebrated their 25 year wedding anniversary. Together, they set up and ran a charity in Nicaragua. As part of their seven years’ work there they developed a network of trained primary care professionals to set up pharmacies and deliver health care to some of the most deprived areas in the country resulting in great benefits to the community. Both agree that this was the most exciting and stimulating time in their lives.
Mike was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia in 2012. Since then they have been involved in a variety of dementia related projects. They are members of Dementia United and are engaged in shaping dementia services across the Greater Manchester area and are particularly interested in end of life care, post diagnostic support, delirium and transport. They are both Dementia Associates at SID because they are passionate about improving things for people living with the condition today and in the future. Mike has given talks about his experience at Clinical Commissioning groups and Patient Participation groups, they have also spoken at conferences and University events. Mike and Liz acknowledge that living with a diagnosis of dementia can be hard. However, they know that a diagnosis is not the end of the journey and that people can continue to live really well. They are still having a great time with each other and their two dogs!
HUB ACTIVITIES/ We have had a busy autumn and winter at The Hub. Our Dementia Associates have been involved in a number of important activities including talking to Bury Councillors about the services they provide for people living with dementia, speaking at an event about dementia and design, helping to shape the new nursing curriculum at the university and running stalls at various conferences and events. We have also been diligently tending the garden at The Hub and we are now planning what we are going to do week commencing 20th May for Dementia Action Week. But it hasn’t all been hard work! In December we went to see Dr Dolittle at the Lowry on Salford Quays which was a really enjoyable evening out, we have also spent an exciting afternoon with the Hallé Orchestra and we have taken part in a performance arts group run by academics from the University’s School of Arts and Media. We hope to set up an exciting project about performance arts for people living with dementia and their care partners.
THE MUSIC CAFÉ/ In February we came to the end of a successful 12 month run for our Music Café delivered in partnership with Music in Care and Hospitals and generously sponsored by Booths Charities. We have had a variety of talented musicians who have given informal concerts to our group at the Hub. The concerts have been enjoyed by everyone who attended. We have had a wide variety of talented and exciting performers, who have given informal concerts greatly enjoyed by everyone at the Hub, including singers, harpists, pianists, wind musicians and percussionists performing music from Puccini to The Beatles, from traditional African calling songs to modern Japanese pieces. The audience have been as involved as the professional musicians, often engaged in singing along or playing instruments of their own. Findings from the evaluation of the Music Café are currently being analysed and a full report will be available in the next newsletter.
SOCIAL MEDIA/ SID is excited to expand its social media activities with its very own Facebook page. The page will include useful information and resources, signposting, news, events and activities. To follow us on Facebook and keep up to date with our latest news, simply search “Salford Institute for Dementia” on Facebook and then click “Like” at the top of the page. You can also follow us on Twitter
@InstForDementia
HALLÉ ORCHESTRA/ created a beautiful piece of music. We know that music can have a positive impact on the lives of people with dementia and making music in this way is something that we would like to explore further. We would like to say a big thank you to Steve Pickett and David Roberts who organised and supported this event and look forward to welcoming them to The Hub in the future.
We were delighted to be invited to visit the Hallé Orchestra’s home at the Bridgewater Hall on 14th November 2018. This was an opportunity for some of our Associates to meet with musicians from the orchestra and to have a go at creating a piece of music. The session began with a visit from two of the Hallé’s musicians who performed an interactive session to eight of our Dementia Associates. They encouraged us to sing and dance along with the music and it was delightful to have such an interactive performance from two greatly talented musicians.
Following our trip to the Bridgewater Hall we have organised a Music Making session with members of the Hallé Orchestra. This will take place on Monday 1st April from 1.00 – 3.00pm at the Dementia Hub on campus. The event is open to anybody living with dementia and their care partners. From September 2019, we will also be running a research project with the Hallé focusing on the benefits of making music. Do get in touch if you would be interested in joining us.
We were also given the opportunity to go into the main theatre and watch a full orchestral rehearsal of Beethoven’s piano Concerto No. 2 with Paul Lewis on the piano and Kazushi Ono conducting. Paul Lewis is one of the top 100 pianists in the world and he played without having to rely on any sheet music. We were the only people in the audience and it was fascinating to see how a conductor interprets a piece of music and how an orchestra prepares for a performance. We were then offered the chance to create some music of our own. This was a particularly enjoyable part of the visit. The Hallé has its own instruments for people to try and under Steve’s guidance we
FREE CAR-PARKING/ We are pleased to be able to offer free car parking at the university when attending any of our groups and activities. Email Lesley Waring l.waring1@salford.ac.uk to register your car.
For more information about any of the activities of the Institute, please call 0161 295 2363 or email dementia@salford.ac.uk
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS/ In this issue of the newsletter we focus on one of our research themes: TECHNOLOGIES. Work funded by The Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust and The Dunhill Medical Trust Theme Lead: Professor Malcolm Granat Members: Sibylle Thies, Alex Bates, Robert Broadley and staff from Four Season Health Care (Robi Roccella, Haydn William and Clare Royston) The main focus of the work of this research theme is to develop technology for monitoring physical behaviour to apply these techniques to support people living with dementia. Monitoring and quantifying of a person’s freeliving physical behaviour using body-worn monitors, and using monitors attached to people’s devices or placed in their home is our focus.
Behaviours can be monitored using a monitor attached to the front of the thigh which continuously records postures (lying, sitting, standing and walking). This provides a detailed picture of a person’s daily physical behaviour. From this we can see the amount of time spent in these activities and the patterns of these activities. This information provides specific detail on time of getting up in the morning, time going to bed, frequency of getting up in the night, long sitting periods during the day.
We have recently completed two funded projects. One looked at improved detection of falls using a body-worn monitor and the other at how stable people are when using their walking aids. FALLS ALARMS/ Falls and their related injuries among older people, and people living with dementia, are common and have a serious impact on the person and their family. Both the number of falls and the severity of the falls increase with age. For people living alone there is a need to raise an alarm when they have fallen. Current body-worn falls-alarms, which alert carers, suffer from poor detection rates. We have been developing an approach to detecting falls which is different to other falls monitors. Previous testing on healthy volunteers showed that our approach, which is based on posture measurement, leads to improved detection of falls.
aimed to detect all falls and to have a very low false alarm rate (giving an alarm when no fall has occurred). This would make it far more useful than current devices. The specific aim of this work was to assess the performance of our novel approach. We monitored people living in 30 care homes in North West and North East of England and in Scotland for periods of up to two months. We made significant improvements to the current state of the art, however more work is needed before such a system is practicable. The long-term aim of this work is to develop a robust and useful falls detection system.
We then conducted a study on people living in Four Seasons care homes, to further develop and test our wearable fall detector system. The system
This work was funded by The Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust.
WALKING AID USE/ Whilst walking aids provide support, their use has been identified as a big risk factor for falling. To prevent falls, walking aids must be used in a stable manner, but we do not know how they are used at home. We investigated adherence, in home settings, to guidance on use of walking aids and evaluated, in a lab setting, user stability while using their walking aid. This study found that all participants used their device in their
home at times incorrectly and not in accordance with guidance. The relevance of this work is how do we improve walking aid use and reduce the number of falls that might be caused by non-use or improper use. This work was funded by The Dunhill Medical Trust.
FUTURE WORK/ We plan on building on the findings and experience of these two projects to find out if walking aids are being used when a person falls. This would help develop better training for people using walking aids. We are looking at ways that monitoring a person’s physical behaviour can provide useful information about their general wellbeing and that can be automatically sent to care partners. For more information contact the research theme lead Professor Malcolm Granat m.h.granat@salford.ac.uk
EDUCATION NEW PHD STUDENTS/ TOBY AARONS/ Toby has recently started his PhD with Gemma Lace and Arijit Mukhopadhyay, in the University of Salford Biomedical Centre. He completed his undergraduate and Master’s degrees at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he undertook research into the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Manchester investigating behavioural models and pharmacological treatments of neurological disorders. Toby’s PhD is exploring the mechanisms by which brain cells secrete and transfer molecules between each other. These mechanisms are important for the maintenance of brain health and function, and both changes to the vehicles involved, as well as their cargo, have been found in conditions that lead to dementia. These changes may contribute to the abnormal accumulation and spread of debris that is observed in the brains of people living with dementia.
AUSTIN ANEKE/ Austin joined SID as a PhD student in October 2018 and has an academic background in sociology, law and social work. He has practiced as front-line social worker for seven years. Austin is interested in exploring the complex informal care sector and is currently researching the experiences of informal carers, caring for older adults living with dementia in the community. He hopes that his work, which is supervised by Andrew Clark and Anthea Innes, will be useful to better understand the dynamics of informal caring to ensure effective and efficient care of older adults living with dementia in the community.
MATTHEW FORD/ Matthew has recently enrolled upon a PhD programme of study under the supervision of Anthea Innes and Andrew Clark. Matthew’s PhD project will focus on how GPS tracking technology can assist those living with Dementia and their care-partners. His research will look at how quality of life can be affected by using tracking devises and ethical concerns surrounding this. Matthew is interested in involving Dementia Associates and their care-partners in this study, looking at the benefits, limitations and concerns that they may have. Matthew has a keen interest in digital health, having recently completed a BSc (hons) degree in Computer Science with Management studies from the University of Leicester. He will also be volunteering at Hub activities.
NAZMUL HUSSAIN/ Nazmul Hussain graduated in a combined study of Indian and Arab History & Culture, Theology and Arabic Language in 1998, receiving a first class degree from the National University of Bangladesh, and a Masters in theology from Loughborough University, UK in 2007. In 2017 he returned to full time study with a post graduate diploma in Social Research Methods and Statistics at the University of Manchester. Nazmul commenced his PhD on dementia study in October 2018, under the supervision of Anya Ahmed and Andrew Clark. Due to his close family member having Dementia, Nazmul wanted to understand more about this topic. Nazmul’s research aim is to explore the understanding of the support needs of people in Bangladeshi Community in the UK, with special reference to Oldham Bangladeshi community, a community whose dementia experiences we know very little about.
JESSICA THOMPSON/ Jess works for an environmental movement called City of Trees www.cityoftrees.org.uk, which is all about creating a greener Greater Manchester by planting trees, looking after greenspaces and creating a ‘woodland culture’ (that means advocating the wide-ranging benefits of trees and woodlands in our urban landscape). In 2012 City of Trees had a new project starting called Heritage Trees which was all about collecting stories, anecdotes, and ‘factoids’ on the meaningfulness of the trees and woodlands for people across Greater Manchester www.heritagetrees.org.uk. The project team wanted to engage people living with dementia - this was a brand-new area of work for them at the time. Jess secured her employers support to study on our MSc Dementia: Care and the enabling environment. Jess is now enrolled to do a PhD at the University looking at the wellbeing impacts of City of Trees and RHS Bridgewater’s outreach work in community greening projects.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT/ AN EVENING OF CELEBRATION, AWARENESS AND COMMUNITY FOCUS AT THE LAUNCH OF A NEW PARTNERSHIP/
We have been working with the Manchester Academy of Community Gymnastics, based here in Salford, to launch a new partnership in March to raise both awareness and funds for the Salford Institute for dementia’s work. At the Academy’s awards evening and birthday celebrations, the Institute gave an after-dinner speech, where we were delighted to be represented by Dementia Associate and Honorary Graduate, Joy Watson and Community Engagement Officer, Chris Sewards. At the nearly 300-seater event, Joy shared her experience of dementia, of the importance of the Institute’s work in supporting those living with dementia and their families, and how attendees could support the Institute’s vital work.
Manchester Academy of Community Gymnastics Awards evening
The partnership has come to fruition thanks to the involvement of Maxine and Michael Grech, who opened the Academy a year ago. The Grech family have a personal connection to the work of the Institute after Michael’s mother lived with dementia before passing away in 2017. We hope that this is the first of many initiatives that we work together on to welcome more people into the SID community. GAMELAB FESTIVAL AT MANCHESTER SCIENCE FESTIVAL/
Gemma Lace’s group led a session on Brain Ageing and Dementia at the GameLab Festival at Media City in October. They worked in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Research UK to showcase a virtual reality dementia experience. The activities at The Hub were promoted and participants were involved in some creative explorations of how dementia affects the brain.
Members of the team at the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science
VISIT FROM LORD ANDREW MAWSON/
On Wednesday 13 June, the Institute welcomed Lord Andrew Mawson (Executive Chair of ‘Well North’ and Social Entrepreneur) to the Dementia Hub for a tour of the facilities and to explore community enterprise/ entrepreneurship, community health and urban regeneration opportunities. Lord Mawson also visited the Nursing Simulation Suites and the Translational Medicine Laboratories at the University as part of his visit. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE/
On 6th November 2018 the Institute hosted a Dementia and Ageing Showcase to celebrate the excellent work being done by and in association with the university. The event brought together researchers from across the university as well as local social enterprises including Six Degrees and Aspire. Gail and Ron Bowker, who are members of our Dementia Associates panel attended to showcase Hub activities.
IMAGINE IF… CHORLTON AND WHALLEY RANGE WERE DEMENTIA FRIENDLY/
In February Andrew Clark and Sarah Campbell (University of Manchester) participated in two workshops in south Manchester to support local communities to become more dementia friendly. The workshops were organised by Chorlton and Whalley Range Dementia Action Alliance. MEET A SCIENTIST/
In March Gemma Lace led a ‘meet a scientist’ session for 30 people at an Alzheimers’ Research UK public event at Ordsall Hall, Salford, where she spoke about the underlying science of the dementia, her research and the work of SID. WORK/LIFE BALANCE/
Gemma Lace gave a talk on public engagement and work/life balance at the Alzheimers’ Research UK Conference in Harrogate in March.
CPD CONFERENCES/ We have hosted two Continuing Professional Development conferences in the last few months. SALFORD INSTITUTE FOR DEMENTIA/ ONE CPD ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN FOR DEMENTIA CONFERENCE/
SALFORD INSTITUTE FOR DEMENTIA/ ONE CPD USER-LED PARTNERSHIP CONFERENCE/
On the 29th of November, an impressive array of speakers and delegates came together at the University of Salford to engage in sharing knowledge and ideas at an educational conference entitled: Environment and Design for Dementia. The day brought together a breadth of topics, from the work done in the I’m Still Here Foundation (John Zeisel) to the findings of recent research on the optimal spaces for those living with dementia (Peter Barrett); from a presentation on participatory methods and approaches to better understand the spatiality of social life of residents living with dementia in neighbourhoods (Andrew Clark) to a conversation between Anthea Innes and Mario Della-Cerra, whose experience in landscaping and as a carer elicited many questions from delegates. The themes continued to range, from enabling environments (Teresa Atkinson), to design of domestic spaces (Bill Halsall); from empowerment and inclusion of people living with dementia (Philly Hare), to award-winning community village models (Tracy Paine); and from design quality in Local Authority sheltered housing (Bob Giddings) to innovative care home design (Damian Utton). In addition to the speakers’ contributions and lively discussions, delegates had the opportunity to visit our Dementia Hub and the university’s Living Lab.
On the 27th March we held a conference on UserLed Partnerships and Service Improvements: Living Well with Dementia. Chaired by Anya Ahmed, this well attended event was developed in partnership with our Dementia Associates and featured a range of topics delivered by an impressive array of speakers including people living with dementia and carers. Anthea Innes, Chris Sewards, and Lesley Calvert delivered a keynote presentation about SID’s User-Led Partnerships and Service Improvement ethos and activities. Presentations followed focusing on: involving people with dementia and their carers in service provision across Europe (Helen Rochford-Brennan and Carmel Geoghegan); insights from community dementia projects and services (the Beth Johnson Foundation); how Dementia United is working to improve the lived experiences of people with dementia across Greater Manchester (Gaynah Butler); and shifting the balance of power to recognise the value and contributions of carers (Anna Gaughan, TIDE). The day also included two seminar streams and delegates could choose from an array of interactive sessions focusing on: involving people with dementia in research and service delivery; perspectives on the challenges facing BME communities; ensuring quality and consistency in dementia training and education; living well with dementia in Salford (Open Doors Dementia Service); insights from the LGBT Dementia Network; and from the SID Dementia Associates Panel.
A range of people attended, from people working in social care, local charities, students and care partners. The experiences took about 15 minutes then the facilitators from FourSeasons engaged each group with a reflection session. We asked those who participated to sum up the feelings of the simulation in one word. The feedback was ‘frustrating’, ‘overwhelming’, isolating’ and ‘challenging’. One participant said the experience felt like she was underwater as her senses had been dulled and it was all very disorientating. Participants left The Hub with increased understanding and knowledge of dementia the condition but more importantly with increased empathy for those living the condition every day.
DEMENTIA FRIENDS TRAINING/ DEMENTIA EXPERIENCE LED BY FOUR SEASONS/ On the 12th March 2019, SID hosted the ‘Dementia Experience’ experiential learning sessions delivered by Four Seasons Healthcare in The Dementia Hub. This experience enables those involved to gain a deeper understanding of what it may feel like to live with dementia every day. It is a virtual experience requiring participants to wear glasses that have been obscured in some way, headphones with constant background noise playing and they wear gloves. This aim is to provide a creative way of modifying the senses and individual cognition in ways that can be experienced by people living with dementia. Once participants were wearing these items they were asked by the facilitators to complete simple tasks that any one of us may do every day, things like lacing shoes, putting on shirts, laying a table, playing cards or opening a packet of sweets.
Dementia Friends training sessions are about learning more about dementia and the small ways you can help. From telling friends about Dementia Friends to visiting someone you know living with dementia, every action counts. The Sessions are run by volunteer Dementia Friends Champions, who are trained and supported by Alzheimer’s Society and each lasts around one hour. You will learn more about dementia and how you can help to create dementia friendly communities. We have held 3 successful Dementia Friends Training sessions in the Dementia Hub since September 2018, each facilitated by Maria King. There will be another one-hour training session at 12:30pm on Wednesday 15th May. A Dementia Friend learns a little bit more about what it’s like to live with dementia and then turns that understanding into action – anyone of any age can be a Dementia Friend. To book onto this session email Lesley Waring l.waring1@salford.ac.uk
DISSEMINATING OUR WORK/ PEER REVIEWED PAPERS/ • Bowker, R., Calvert, L., Allcroft, F., Bowker, G., Foy, P., Gandy, J., Jones, S., Bushell, S., Clark, A and Innes, A. (accepted for publication in January 2019) ‘Our voice started off as a whisper and now it is a great big roar’: The Salford Dementia Associate Panel as a model of involvement in research activities. Dementia. • Chatwin, J. and Mcevoy, P. (2019) Conversation-analysis (CA) as a tool for exploring interactions in an online video-conferencing based support service for carers of people with dementia. Journal of Enabling Technologies. • Grzeschik, R., Conroy-Dalton, R., Innes, A., Shanker S., Wiener, J.M. (2019) The contribution of visual attention and declining verbal memory abilities to age-related route learning deficits Cognition. • Hicks, B., Innes, A., and Nyman, S. (2019) Exploring the ‘active mechanisms’ for engaging ruraldwelling older men with dementia in a community technological initiative Ageing and Society. • Funnell, L., Garriock, I., Shirley, B.G. and Williamson, T. (2018), ‘Dementia-friendly design of television news broadcasts’, Journal of Enabling Technologies. • Morris, L., Mansell, W., Williamson, T., Wray, A. & McEvoy, P. (2018). Communication Empowerment Framework: An integrative framework to support effective communication and interaction between carers and people living with dementia. Dementia. • Scerri, A., Scerri, C and Innes, A (2018) The perceived and observed needs of patients with dementia admitted to acute medical wards Dementia.
CONFERENCES/ • Morris, L. & Smith, E. (February 2019). An introduction to Empowered Conversations. Presented at ‘The Place Where I Live: Meanings and Experiences of Home and Neighbourhood for People Living with Dementia’/Making Research Count, Salford. • Clark, A. (February 2019): Why neighbourhoods matter for people living with dementia. Presented at ‘The Place Where I Live: Meanings and Experiences of Home and Neighbourhood for People Living with Dementia’/Making Research Count, Salford. • Clark, A. (February 2019) Why do neighbourhoods matter for people living with dementia? Invited to present at Doing Ageing Differently Conference GMCA conference, Manchester. • Lace, G. (January 2019) Neurobiology of Dementia Friendly Design, JDA conference • Clark, A. (November 2018), Everyday places: why neighbourhoods matter for people living with dementia. Presented at Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts (USA). • Davis, K. (October 18) Poster ‘Stigma and Dementia: Our Journey’ and oral presentation on coresearching with people living with dementia at Alzheimer Europe Conference, Barcelona (Spain). • Innes, A., Bushell, S. and Poyner, C. and Watson, J. (October 18) Involving people with dementia: the Salford Dementia Associate Panel. Presented at Alzheimer Europe Conference, Barcelona (Spain). • Innes, A. and Poyner, C. (October 18) Music Cafe: the role of music performance in promoting a dementia friendly society. Presented at Alzheimer Europe, Barcelona (Spain). • Campbell, S. and Clark, A. (September 2018) ‘Dementia Time’ and the temporal neighbourhood. Presented at the European Sociological Association 4th Midterm Conference of the Research Network on Ageing in Europe, Brno (Czech Republic). • Taylor, L., Watson, J., and Clark, A. (September 2018): ‘The Salford Way’. Demonstration and interactive presentation at NHS Expo 2018, Manchester. • Tomar, N. (September 2018) Exploring the Influence of Adipose tissues on Neuronal Function in Alzheimer’s disease. Presented at BIRAX Conference. • Grzeschik, R., Dalton, R., Innes, A. and Wiener, J. (September 2018) The development of executive control in large-scale Search. Presented at International Conference on Spatial Cognition, Rome (Italy).
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SALFORD INSTITUTE FOR DEMENTIA: Visit: www.salford.ac.uk/salfordinstitute-for-dementia Tel: 0161 295 2363 Email: dementia@salford.ac.uk @InstForDementia