Tagged / dementia

New ‘DEALTS 2’ dementia education protocol paper by ADRC team

BU research

Many congratulations to Dr Michelle Heward, Dr Michele Board, Ashley Spriggs and Pro Jane Murphy from the ADRC for their new publication ‘Design and evaluation protocol for ‘DEALTS 2’: a simulation-based dementia education intervention for acute care settings’ in International Psychogeriatrics.

The team was commissioned by Health Education England (HEE) to develop and evaluate ‘DEALTS 2’, a national simulation-based education toolkit informed by the Humanisation Values Framework, developed at Bournemouth University and based on an experiential learning approach to facilitate positive impacts on practice. This paper describes the process of developing DEALTS 2 and the protocol for evaluating the impact of this intervention on practice across England.

The paper was published online on 3rd January 2019: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-psychogeriatrics/article/design-and-evaluation-protocol-for-dealts-2-a-simulationbased-dementia-education-intervention-for-acute-care-settings/0D6D58EB6D24257F6454E6AB0AF69E7D

Good luck today to our DEALTS 2 finalists for the 9th National Dementia Care Awards!

BU research, Research news

The Dementia Education And Learning Through Simulation 2 (DEALTS 2) programme has been shortlisted for the 9th National Dementia Care Awards 2018 in the Best Dementia Training Initiative category, which recognises the vital role of effective training in dementia care. Today is the judging day and the award will be made to an individual or organisation that can demonstrate the value of a training initiative which has been successfully implemented.

“I was over the moon when I found out DEALTS 2 had been shortlisted, it is a real honour to be a finalist in the 2018 competition,” says Dr Michelle Heward, 1/4 of the DEALTS 2 research team. “We had been nominated by a colleague from another university who completed an application.”

The DEALTS 2 programme is a national simulation-based dementia education programme for hospital staff with regular contact with people with dementia. The programme is an innovative, low cost, high impact training toolkit which aims to facilitate staff to consider experiences from the point of view of a person living with dementia, enabling staff to see beyond the diagnosis and see the person.

These resources can be adapted to be relevant in different settings and have been designed using low key simulation scenarios, which will allow staff to make positive changes to how they care and support people with dementia. The training also integrates theory into practice introducing the Humanising Values Framework (HVF) a philosophical lens developed at BU that identifies potentially humanising and dehumanising care and support. The HVF enables trainers to support staff morals as well as improve the care of people with dementia.

“The team has worked hard to deliver 13 train-the-trainer sessions nationally across England in 2017 with 196 trainers attending. The toolkit has been developed iteratively to encapsulate feedback from dementia specialists, trainers and informal carers,” says Dr Heward.

Click here to find out more about the DEALTS 2 programme, or get in touch with Dr Michelle Heward here. The DEALTS team includes Professor Jane Murphy, Dr Michele Board and Ashley Spriggs.

REGISTER NOW: 18th September 2018 – Sixth Annual Wessex CRN Research Meeting & Regional BGS

BU research, conferences, Events, HSS Our 9 Research Entities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, NHS, PG research

Click links for programme and registration form, spaces limited!

Programme for SIXTH Annual Wessex CRN and Regional BGS 18 Sept 2018 with sponsors v3

REGISTRATION FORM for 6th annual Wessex CRN Research BGS MEET

ING 18 09 2018

Photo of the Week: The TACIT Trial

BU research, Research communication

The TACIT Trial: TAi ChI for people with demenTia

This week’s photo of the week is Dr Samuel Nyman‘s entry of a Tai Chi class in action. This weekly series features photo entries from our annual Research Photography Competition taken by BU academics, students and professional staff, which gives a glimpse into some of the fantastic research undertaken across the BU community.

The TACIT Trial is all about people. The study is undertaken by a team of researchers led by Dr Samuel Nyman at BU who are looking into the benefits of Tai Chi for people with dementia.  Qualified Tai Chi instructors, such as senior instructor Robert Joyce from Elemental Tai Chi (photographed), lead the classes.  The classes are attended by people with dementia and their informal carers.  The classes involve slow, gentle, fluid body movements and slow breathing that leave you feeling relaxed and yet you have exercised your core muscles.  In this randomised controlled trial, we are following up for six months people who have taken part in the classes and practiced at home and are comparing them to others who have not done Tai Chi.  This will provide initial evidence for the first time in the UK as to the benefits of Tai Chi for the health and well-being of people with dementia and their informal carers.  This photo is taken from a workshop for Solent NHS led the the chief investigator Dr Samuel Nyman and Robert Joyce.

You can find out more about the TACIT Trial here:

Webpage: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/tai-chi/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheTACITTrial/

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Dr Samuel Nyman is a Principal Academic at Bournemouth University. For more information about this research, please contact Samuel here.

 

ADRC and HEE showcase ‘DEALTS 2’ at ‘Dementia 2020: The Next Phase’ in London

Uncategorized

On Tuesday 17th April 2018, the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) were invited to join Health Education England (HEE) to showcase the Dementia Education and Learning Through Simulation 2 (DEALTS 2) programme at ‘Dementia 2020: The Next Phase’ in London. The event, hosted by Govconnect, provided an opportunity to consider progress on the ‘Challenge Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan’ assessing whether commitments have been meet so far. Commitments of the plan aspire to make England the best country in the world for: dementia care and support; for people with dementia to live; and to conduct dementia research.

In 2016, HEE commissioned a team from Bournemouth University (BU) to develop and evaluate DEALTS 2. DEALTS 2 is a simulation-based dementia education programme for staff in acute hospitals across England. It is based on an experiential learning approach, placing hospital staff into the shoes of a person with dementia, to facilitate a positive impact on practice. The training is mapped against a selection of core competencies for staff with regular contact with people with dementia (Tier 2) and underpinned by the Humanising Values Framework a philosophical lens originally developed at BU. The team, Dr Michelle Heward, Dr Michele Board, Ashley Spriggs and Prof Jane Murphy, delivered DEALTS 2 as a train-the-trainer model across England in 2017 to 196 trainers from 13 HEE Local Education Boards, and are continuing to evaluate the impact on practice.

The DEALTS 2 programme was showcased as a case study at the Dementia 2020 event in a presentation given by Jan Zietara the Head of Programme Delivery for HEE. Dr Michelle Heward represented the ADRC at the event which provided an opportunity to connect with members of key organisations involved in delivering the Implementation Plan for Dementia 2020, as well as people with dementia, caregivers and individuals interested in dementia care and support more broadly.

The event was co-chaired by George Rook an advocate who himself lives with dementia, and Rachel Thompson the Professional and Practice Lead for Dementia UK. Throughout the event a range of speakers updated the audience on progress including: Jeremy Hughes CBE, Chief Executive, Alzheimer`s Society; David Nuttall, Deputy Director – Dementia Policy, Department of Health; and Dr Charles Alessi Senior Advisor and Lead for Dementia, Public Health England. It has to be said though that Suzy Webster who is a caregiver for her mother who has dementia gave the most heartfelt speech reminding us that policy is necessary but it is now time to see action on the ground to improve care and support for people with dementia – not a dry eye was left in the house!

Discussion on the day focused on celebrating the small steps forward that have been taken, whilst being mindful that there remains some way to go to meet the commitments outlined in the plan by 2020.

ERASMUS 2017: Promoting autonomy for people with dementia using ICT applications

EU, Research news, Uncategorized

The end of 2017 brought about the start of the second successful ERASMUS funded project for Dr Ben Hicks (psychology lecturer and member of ADRC) and Professor Wen Tang (Head of Creative Technology Department). Working alongside European partners from Slovenia (Alzheimer’s Slovenia), Greece (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Spain (Alzheimer’s Castellon and the University of Valencia) and Turkey (Alzheimer’s Turkey), the two year project aims to develop an e-platform that raises awareness and promotes the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the autonomy of people with dementia and their care partners.

The first meeting was held in Castellon, Spain, at the Universitat Jaume 1 on the 18-19th December 2017 and was attended by Ben and Natalia Adamczewska (ADRC). Over the course of two days, the proposed research plan and outcomes of the project were discussed in more detail and tasks were assigned to each of the European partners. This included establishing an Advisory Group of people with dementia, care partners and practitioners to inform the development of the project as well as conducting a review of best practice within this field.

Although it is only early days, there was a real buzz around the meeting, as the partners discussed the project and the potential beneficial impact it could have for people living with dementia across Europe. The second meeting for the project team is planned for April/May 2018.

If you would like further information on the research please contact Ben on bhicks@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

End of year ADRC Christmas Seminar – PhD Student presentations

BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

Six of  the ADRC PhD students gave short presentations of their plans and findings  at the end of year ADRC  Christmas seminar held on 12th  December. They included the following:

Yolanda Barrado-Martin : Process evaluation of a Tai Chi exercise intervention to prevent falls among older people with dementia.

Raysa El Zein : Dietary intervention study using coconut oil to evaluate effects of ketone metabolism in older adults.

Christopher Hilton : The role of attention in spatial (dis)orientation in people with early signs of dementia.

Joanne Holmes : An exploration of the factors that affect the extensive meal experience for cognitively active elderly living in residential care.

Mananya Podee : Improving holiday accommodation and service provision for people with dementia: An exploration of needs and expectations.

Vladislava Segen : How does ageing affect ability to recognise places, stay oriented & navigate successfully?

It was a highly successful afternoon with lots of good discussion and challenging questions posed for our students.  Well done to everyone who presented and we look forward to hearing more about your great work in due course!

ADRC presented latest results at two conferences in Germany

BU research, Uncategorized

Jan Wiener, Ramona Grzeschik and Chris Hilton represented the Ageing & Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) at the 40th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 27–31 August 2017 in Berlin and the 20th Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP) 3-6 September 2017 in Potsdam.

The ECVP is an annual meeting that brings together researchers from Psychology, Neurosciences, Optics, Computational Sciences and more. Besides vision, other modalities are represented as well as their interaction (multisensory perception). The conference of the ESCoP is being held once every two years. The society’s mission is “the furtherance of scientific enquiry within the field of Cognitive Psychology and related subjects, particularly with respect to collaboration and exchange of information between researchers in different European countries”.

Ramona represented the ADRC at both conferences with her ESRC-funded project on Dementia-friendly environments. In particular, she presented a poster with the latest results of her wayfinding experiment where she investigated the route learning abilities and eye movements of young and old participants.

At the ESCoP conference, Jan gave a talk on “What can eye-tracking tell us about the cognitive mechanisms underlying successful navigation?” where he introduced a couple of experiments that investigated eye movements during route and place learning in Virtual Environments.

Chris presented his results at the ESCoP as well. His poster titled “An exploration into the effects of ageing on general control of attention during route learning in a complex environment.” escribed his experiment using a natural looking virtual environment called “Virtual Tübingen”. He investigated attentional engagement during a route learning task in young and old participants.