Core team
Professor Anthea Innes (Director, BUDI)
Professor Anthea Innes joined BU in December 2011 as Professor of Health and Social Care Research, with a remit to develop our activity on dementia and ageing. Professor Innes joins us from Stirling University, where she developed the first online postgraduate programme in Dementia Studies.
Professor Innes is passionate about improving the lives of those with dementia and their families, as well as enabling care professionals to provide high-quality support and service. She is widely-published and is the author of Dementia Studies: A Social Science Perspective (published by Sage) and Training and Development for Dementia Care Workers (Jessica Kingsley). She also co-authored a best practice book on end of life dementia care and has edited five books as well as peer review papers, professional journal papers and book chapters.
Her research interests within the area of dementia are: rural service provision; technology; care environments; the views and experiences of those with dementia, their family members and paid care workers; and diagnosis and postdiagnostic support.
She uses mixed methods in her research and has particular skill in the use of interviews and focus groups as well as observation methods including Dementia Care Mapping (DCM). She has led numerous research projects including working on EU consortium projects and is currently working in collaboration with colleagues from Canada and Malta.
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Michele Board (Associate Director, BUDI)
Michele Board has been an adult nurse since 1985 and has had a broad range of clinical experience with a specific focus on nursing the older person. She started lecturing in 2003 and leads units on the Essentials of Nursing Care for the undergraduate nursing programme, and specialist themed days on the nursing care of the older person. She has led the development of dementia education programmes for health and social care staff working in the NHS and the private sector. She holds an honorary contract with a local health care trust working as the senior nurse for their memory clinic.
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Clare Cutler (Research Assistant, BUDI)
Since graduating from Nottingham Trent University, Clare has undertaken and been involved in various voluntary research activities within heritage, archaeological and conservation sectors. After obtaining an MSc, Clare’s research interests evolved and focused on social aspects of history and archaeology. In January 2012 Clare was appointed as Research Assistant with the School of Health and Social Care (Bournemouth University) and in March was working within Bournemouth University Dementia Institute.
Since working within BUDI Clare has worked on several projects (local, national and international) such as; Dementia Friendly Tourism, Gateway to Rural International Initiatives in Dementia, Cupcake Club, Technology Club, Movement and Music, Tales of the Sea, Don’t Mention Dementia.
In October 2012, Clare started a part time PhD, which investigates experiences of war and how these experiences impact on living with dementia.
Dr Mariela Gaete Reyes (Post Doctoral Researcher, BUDI)
Dr Mariela Gaete Reyes is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in BUDI. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) Professional Degree. After finishing her studies she worked as an architect for a couple of years. Mariela has extensive teaching experience in interior design and architectural drafting, and has also taught social research methods. She gained a MSc in Urban Development where she undertook research with disabled children (and their families) on the physical and socio-attitudinal barriers, which limit their inclusion and equality of opportunities. Her PhD in Human Geography (King’s College London) is interdisciplinary in shape and focus, cross-cutting issues of health, care and impairment. The research explored the access, mobility and movement of women wheelchair users, how disability is socio-culturally constructed and issues relating to well being and care. Part of her research focused on care relationships between the disabled person and the carer/personal assistant, and the institutional context in which these relationships take place. Mariela’s research has focused on the interactions of disabled people with the built and social environment. She takes a life course approach to disability, and she is interested in the commonalities between ageism and disablism. Mariela brings rich experience from the fields of architecture, urban studies, geography and disability to her new role within BUDI and is currently working on a series of dementia related projects.
Michelle O’Brien (Administrator, BUDI)
Michelle joined BU in October 2008 on a project for 2 years, followed by working for the Deputy Dean of HSC. Michelle became the BUDI Administrator in May 2012 and her responsibilities are supporting all BUDI team members, along with managing events and keeping accounts of projects.
Dr. Lukman Aeron (Lecturer in International Marketing)
Dr Lukman is a Lecturer in International Marketing, Bournemouth University Business School seconded to BUDI April 2013.
Lukman’s interest is in consumer behaviour area with particular focus on consumer playfulness and playful experience. His recent and current projects have been investigating playfulness in the context of game and animation. In responding to the need to find innovative and creative ways and in collaboration with BUDI, his project will explore how playfulness concept and playful activities can be applied in and positively contribute to the therapy and life quality of people with dementia.
This project is pioneering, as the concept of playfulness is new to the dementia discipline and very limited research has been done before. Along with expected significant contribution to the reputation of BU in the dementia field, it is also expected to have a beneficial impact on people with dementia, their families, society, and related services such as the NHS and health and social care specialists. The project intends to disseminate the findings to similar beneficiaries available in other countries and to develop international collaboration, especially to ASEAN-Australasia regions with a focus on Indonesia. This international networking offers the potential for cross-national comparative research. The project also aims to bid for external funding for exploring the playfulness application to real world experiences.
Sue Barker (Senior Lecturer In Mental Health)
Sue Barker is a senior lecturer in Mental Health and has been registered with the Nursing Midwifery Council as a mental health nurse since 1985. Sue is also a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and currently leads an undergraduate unit on mental health and wellbeing in later life which has a dementia focus. Sue has recently published a book called Dementia Care Nursing with a colleague, Michele Board. Sues passion is to facilitate the provision of high quality care for people experiencing mental or emotional distress. Sue is interested in how we can promote emotional wellbeing with a focus on how people develop meaning and hope in their lives; sometimes referred as the spiritual part of the self.
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Dr. Rick Fisher (Senior Lecturer)
Rick leads the School of Health and Social Care International Strategy Group and is a member of the University International Task Force. His professional background is District Nursing (Nursing in the Home). Currently he is developing a number of relationships with international partners in Australia, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. Much of this centres around Patient Safety, which is his primary research interest. Other areas include the dimensions of power relationships in nursing practice which was a focus of his PhD thesis. Within BUDI he is working to identify international collaborators who may wish to engage in research, education and knowledge exchange.
He is Principal Investigator on a project to produce an Educational game for nursing student engagement in caring for people with dementia.
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Sarah Hambidge (Researcher)
Sarah is an energetic, creative and professional individual, who has a sound social science background and a 2:1 honours degree in Sociology with Social Research. Since graduating from Plymouth University Sarah has managed a wide variety of research projects in the private and commercial industries, and brings to BUDI a broad project management, business development and marketing experience in conjunction with her research skills. Sarah’s specific research interests include health promotion, hard to reach groups (young adults and older people) and community working.
Since working with BUDI Sarah has worked on several high profile projects including the (Don’t) Mention Dementia Social Engagement Arts project.
Vanessa Heaslip (Senior Lecturer in adult nursing)
Vanessa Heaslip is a senior lecturer in adult nursing, and has worked extensively with older people firstly as a District Nurse and then latterly as a specialist nurse for older people. Her specialist areas of expertise are working across a range of professional groups including nursing; paramedic and post graduate foundation medical education as well as delivering educational programmes at a variety of academic levels. She has been involved in a developing and delivering a range of Dementia programmes with her colleagues at BU across both statutory and independent services. Her professional interests lie within humanising care delivered to patients and their families using novel educational approaches which illuminate the lived experience; challenging staff to see beyond the diagnosis towards seeing the person and using this new insight to critically analyse care provided.
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David Kilburn (Associate Professor and head of business development)
David Kilburn Associate Professor and Head of Business Development, Chartered Marketer, M.B.A. came to BU in 1989
to set up the Retail degree which has a proud record of
100% employment and high starting salaries year on year. David has
always been involved with developing business since he came to BU. He has written 17 successful KTP classic and short KTP’s over the past few years. David is very happy to be working with Anthea and the rest of the BUDI team. He brings knowledge, marketing expertise, business experience as he ran his own successful retail business in consumer electronics for 8 years in the Manchester area. David is fluent in Spanish, has a good working knowledge of Portuguese and Italian. He has Enthusiasm, persistence, bid writing experience, ‘can do’ approach and ability to get on with people.
A personal reason for wanting to be involved with the Dementia Institute is that his father has dementia so he knows about the condition and the impact it can have on relatives and carers.
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Dr. Samuel Nyman (Senior Lecturer in Psychology)
Dr Nyman is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Psychology Research Centre, of the School of Design, Engineering & Computing, and is currently seconded to BUDI. With a background in health psychology, his main area of research is the prevention of falls and promotion of physical activity among older people.
He recently worked on a service evaluation for the Dorset PCT Cluster, helping them to evaluate their memory advisory services, and he is currently co-delivering a training programme for Gracewell care home staff.
In addition, he is currently co-supervising Ben Hick’s PhD study on the use of game technology with older men with dementia in rural Dorset, and lead supervisor for Natalia Adamczewska’s PhD study on older people’s psychological recovery from falls. From October 2013 he will be co-supervising two further PhD students who will be researching in care homes to evaluate a new model of dementia care and promote wellbeing.
Other current projects include a pilot study exploring older people’s views on outdoor falls, a study using behaviour change techniques to increase walking among older people, development of a website to promote strength and balance training (www.freshbalance.org.uk), and advisor for an Australian randomised controlled trial to prevent hospital-based falls.
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Jan Wiener (Senior Lecturer in Psychology)
Jan Wiener is a Senior Lecturer in the Psychology Research Centre and head of the wayfinding lab. He specialises in the cognition of wayfinding combining behavioural navigation experiments virtual reality technology and eye-tracking in his research. Dr. Wiener has a track record of research into the relationship between architectural properties of space and wayfinding behaviour and more recently on the effects of cognitive ageing on navigation and wayfinding skills.
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KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership)
Christopher Poyner
Chris joined BUDI at the start of the year/2013 as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership associate. The partnership, between BU and the Brendoncare Foundation, has been formed to aid in the development of an innovative new model of care for people with dementia and their carers. Chris’s background is in Sociology and he holds a Masters degree in Social Research and Social Policy.
PHD Students
Ben Hicks (PhD Student)
Ben Hicks has recently joined the BUDI team to undertake a PhD in collaboration with AgeUK Dorset. Previously he worked as a researcher at the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) where he was a member of the health and well-being team. Before moving to BUDI, he managed a research project for the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) which informed the development of guidance documentation for carers wishing to implement and use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the well-being of people with dementia. The current PhD looks to draw upon and advance this work, by exploring the use of computer game technology as a care intervention to improve the well-being of men with dementia in rural areas of Dorset.
Working closely with AgeUK Dorset and other dementia care providers in the local area, Ben will lead consultation groups with dementia experts, care practitioners, men with dementia and their family members to ascertain the most appropriate gaming technology to introduce; this could include the Xbox Kinnect, Nintendo Wii or the Nintendo DS. Having established the technology to be used, he will run a series of care interventions with men with dementia each lasting three months. He will determine the success and sustainability of these interventions by collecting qualitative and quantitative data prior to their introduction, immediately after their conclusion and three months post intervention.
The consultation period is due to commence in early 2013, with the care intervention phase likely to run through late 2013 to early/mid 2014 and the final results and guidance documentation to be published in 2015. For further information on the project please contact Ben on bhicks@bournemouth.ac.uk
Natalia Adamczewska
Natalia Adamczewska has recently started a Vice-Chancellor fee-waive PhD studentship under the joint supervision of Dr. Samuel Nyman (BUDI / DEC), Prof. Jonathan Parker (HSC) and Prof. Peter Coleman (University of Southampton). The aim of the research is to investigate how older adults cope with and adjust to injurious and traumatic accidental falls. Falls are the most serious and frequent accidents among older people, and given the ageing of populations worldwide, is an ever-growing public health issue. This research will lead to a better understanding of the meaning of accidental falls to older people, which will help develop insight into their recovery process and participation in rehabilitation. The research will also compare patients from the UK with those from Poland to investigate how socio-cultural factors influence psychological adjustment to falls.
For more information on this PhD research please email Natalia: nadamczewska@bournemouth.ac.uk
BUDI Support Team
Dr Rebecca Edwards
(Research Development Officer – Public Engagement)
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Mary-Ann Robertson
(Business Relations Manager)
Angela Warren
(Service User and Carer Co-oridnator)
Peter Atkins
(Service User and Carer Co-oridnator)
Dr. Clare Wedderburn
(Associate GP with the school of Health and Social Care)
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Dr. Jane Murphy
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Professor Keith Brown
(Director of Post Qualifying Social Work (PQSW) within HSC).
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Professor Stephen Page
(School of Tourism)
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Dr Simon Thompson (Associate Professor)
(Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology)
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Associate Dementia Fellows
Dr Emer Forde (GP and a Wessex Deanery Service Improvement and Leadership Fellow)
Dr Emer Forde is a local GP and a Wessex Deanery Service Improvement and Leadership Fellow. She is involved in medical education and research, and is also working with NHS Dorset, Bournemouth & Poole on a new initiative to help improve diagnosis and care for people with dementia. Emer has a longstanding interest in dementia and previously worked as a neuropsychologist in a memory clinic.
Prior to training as a doctor, Emer was a lecturer in cognitive neuropsychology. Her research interests were in memory, object recognition and the cognitive processes required for everyday tasks. She was particularly interested in understanding how these processes break down following brain damage. Emer was awarded a national prize by the British Neuropsychological Society for an outstanding contribution to research at an early stage in her career. Her current research interests are in understanding how doctors’ attitudes towards dementia, and their knowledge of the disease, impact on their clinical practice
Dr Edward Farrell ( GP and Dementia Fellow for Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group)
Edward is 
involved in implementing a new NHS Dorset, Bournemouth & Poole initiative to help improve the identification, diagnosis and quality of life for people with dementia and their families. This includes education of primary health care professionals and promotion of well being for people with dementia across the county. He is also a member of the Dorset Dementia Partnership and Dorset Dementia Diagnosis Group. Edward has a longstanding interest in dementia and has previously worked in a memory clinic and old age psychiatry units across South Wales. During his training as a GP locally, Edward has again worked in psychiatry and in elderly care departments specialising in dementia.
Dr Asmita Mistry (GP)
Dr Asmita Mistry is a local GP who qualified from The Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals Medical school in 2002. She pursued her post graduate training 
up to registrar level in general, respiratory and intensive care medicine which involved a significant proportion of elderly care medicine. Asmita’s GP training in Bournemouth and Poole allowed her to gain further experience in working with patients with dementia, and she spent 18months of her training in a practice serving a large proportion of elderly patients. Asmita is passionate about the elderly and is excited about her new role as an NHS Dementia Fellow. This will involve delivering educational workshops to every practice in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole with a focus on improving early diagnosis rates of dementia and knowledge of the services available locally.
Dr Emily Monks (GP and Dementia Fellow)
Dr Emily Monks completed her undergraduate and general medical training in Dublin, where she developed an interest in Elderly Care, beginning specialist training in this area. She continued this in Southampton and Bournemouth, prior to moving to General Practice training in Dorset. She has developed an interest in Dementia through her experiences in Elderly Care, working in hospital, community and intermediate care settings, psychiatry, and General Practice. Along with the other Dementia Fellows, she is involved in developing and delivering an educational package to all General Practices across Dorset, with a focus on early diagnosis and improving care and support for patients with Dementia and their carers.
Dr Temi Odetoyinbo
Dr Temi Odetoyinbo qualified from medical school in Hungary in 2004 and after an initial career in elderly care medicine and emergency
medicine, completed her GP training in Dorset. She is now one of four GP Dementia Fellows in Dorset, working with NHS Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole. This role involves the development and delivery of education workshops on dementia to all GP practices throughout Dorset. Temi is also working as a locum GP in Dorset and the Isle of Wight. She has a particular interest in care of the elderly and in improving the quality of care for people living with dementia.