Yearly Archives / 2013

Want to improve your communication and public speaking skills?

Training

Stand Up & Speak Without Fear – Wednesday 8 May 2013

7th Floor EBC 2pm to 5pm

The Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to invite you to a seminar by Toastmasters International. An educational organisation that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills.

You will also get the opportunity to meet with Brian Jenner who is a professional speechwriter. He won a prestigious Cicero Award in 2010. His clients have included Cabinet ministers, CEOs and celebrities.  Brian now runs the European Speechwriter Network. He worked for the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Daily Mail, and wrote a bestselling book, Men & Collections

This is a free event for BU Staff, Students & Businesses. Refreshments will be provided. To book your place please visit www.bucfe.com/events or telephone 01202 961216.

FIF Staff Mobility and Networking award helping me fly

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion

Early in January I received the good news that my application to the Fusion Investment Fund SMN strand was successful. What a great way to start the New Year!

The main aim of my FIF SMN project is to consolidate newly developed partnerships with European and non-European researchers and stakeholders. Planned activities include visits to colleagues who were involved in the development of the research proposal “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast” (LEEC), submitted to the EU FP7 call on Environment (Challenge 6.4 Protecting citizens from environmental hazards). LEEC successfully passed stage 1 and we are now waiting for the outcome of stage 2, so keep your fingers crossed.

As my FIF SMN proposal builds from LEEC, I decided to call it “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast Grant Development” (LEEC GraDe). Not very creative, but it reflects well the main objective, which is to explore opportunities for collaborative research in topics related to LEEC. LEEC aims to better understand how extreme storms and climate change in coastal areas will affect flood risk and impact on society, infrastructure, economic activities and the natural environment throughout the 21th century.

Besides, the development of collaborative research proposals, I will also be exploring opportunities for enhancing students’ experience, e.g. through work placements. By the time I submitted the FIF SMN proposal, I had just taken the role of ApSci’s Academic Lead for Placements. In this role, one of my objectives is to increase the offer of research-based placements to our students. So I thought my networking visits would be a great opportunity to discuss with colleagues from organisations in Europe and abroad whether they are interested in offering to our students a research-based working experience. Many researchers systematically plan their fieldwork campaigns or dedicate larger proportion of their time to research in the summer, so a work placement can be mutually beneficial.

I so much believe in the benefits of this arrangement that I am offering two placements this summer to undergrad ApSci students. If you are interested in doing the same, please contact me.

LEEC partners are from 13 organisations spread across eight countries (Estonia, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, UK, Mexico and Vietnam). The FIF SMN award will allow me to visit some of these organisations and engage in other networking opportunities. I will be very busy networking throughout 2013! Hopefully the effort will result in the submission of more collaborative research proposals and a number of arrangements made to enrich students’ experiences through placements or exchanges.

The first of my planned activities was to attend the 12th International Coastal Symposium (ICS) in Plymouth (http://ics2013.org/) earlier this month. This is the largest international conference focused on coastal research with over 500 participants, so a great venue to disseminate research results, to keep updated with research progress worldwide and to network! I was invited to be the convener of the Coastal Evolution and Geomorphology session, so worked very hard evaluating abstracts and full papers before the conference! I also presented a paper on the Coastal Management session, entitled “Is managed realignment a sustainable long-term coastal management approach?” You can find a copy of the paper on BRIAN.

ICS offered the opportunity to meet many ‘old’ friends and make new contacts worldwide, including from countries I had none before, such as Trinidad & Tobago and South Africa. I have already exchanged email with a few of the new (and old) contacts and there are very exciting prospects for future collaboration. I have discussed the preparation of a joint paper with a colleague from the University of Rostock (Germany), explored ways to collaborate with practitioners from a government agency in Trinidad & Tobago and I am already working on a proposal with colleagues from South Africa. The most immediate result from networking during ICS was the invitation to visit five different organisations in Mexico, which is planned to happen in June.

Networking is also about maximising the opportunities and I will be doing exactly that next month in Brazil. I was invited to give a keynote talk in the National Symposium of Coastal Vulnerability. As the hosts are taking me to Brazil, I will extend my stay and visit two universities using SMN funds. The plan is to start building a joint research proposal to submit to the Science without borders programme (funding source from Brazil) with the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and discuss exchange of postgraduate students and other opportunities with the Universidade do Vale do Itai.

Please watch this space for upcoming news!

Luciana Slomp Esteves (Lecturer in Physical Geography, ApSci)

Health, Wellbeing & Ageing workshop on 10 May – US perspective on the care of older people

BU research

On 10 May, Prof Phil Clark from the University of Rhode Island in the US will be running a workshop for our Health, Wellbeing and Ageing theme from 10-12pm (a short Bio is pasted below) in R207. Lunch will be provided. Please email Julia Hastings Taylor if you would like to attend.

Phil will offer us his perspective on the care of older people in the US and particularly the importance of interprofessional collaboration for older adults from the US perspective.

He will then work with us to explore opportunities for publishing for US audiences in this field as well as opportunities for making collaborative research and education links between BU and the University of Rhode Island and other US institutions especially in the field of interagency, interprofessional education and practice as well as Ageing.

Phil is on sabbatical with us from 6-25 May.  He has offered to give guest lectures on subjects to students related to Working Together in the Care of Older Adults and Interprofessional Teamwork in the US.  If this is something you would like to offer your students between these dates please contact Sarah Hean.

Dr Phillip G. Clark is Professor and Director of both the Program in Gerontology and the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center at the University of Rhode Island in the US, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. He was awarded a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard University in 1979. He has served as Visiting Professor at the Universities of Guelph and Toronto in Canada (1988-89), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Buskerud University College in Norway (2007). His experience includes teaching health care teamwork, developing interprofessional health care research and demonstration projects, and consulting on interprofessional educational program development and evaluation. He is co-author of Health Care Teamwork: Interdisciplinary Practice and Teaching (Auburn House/Greenwood, 2000); his work has been published in The Gerontologist, Canadian Journal on Aging, Journal of Aging and Health, Ageing and Society, Educational Gerontology, Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, and the Journal of Interprofessional Care. Dr. Clark is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.  He is Visiting Professor at the School of Health and Social Care, Bournemouth University and on the leadership group of the Special Interest Group IN-2-THEORY (Interprofessional scholarship, education and practice).

CEMP Research & Innovation Cluster Bulletin & Agenda

BU research, Funding opportunities

  Here: CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 2.5.13  is the updated bulletin and the agenda for the next CEMP Research & Innovation cluster meeting.

The meeting is on Thursday 2nd May in the CEMP office, with the following timings:

‘Think-tank’ discussion of reading – 9.30 – 10.15

The reading for this has been provided by Michelle Cannon and is here:

design_educ_innovation_ecotones_pendleton_jullian[2]

Funding and projects review – 10.15 – 11.30

As always, Media School colleagues are very welcome indeed to join us for either or both of the above.

As always, people attending should review the bulletin before the meeting so we can spend time only discussing items people are interested in pursuing and should bring a laptop or tablet to access the bulletin electronically during the meeting.

For the ‘think-tank’ discussion, Michelle has offered the following information and suggested extract:

Pendleton-Jullian elaborates a metaphor that might be useful for visualising the terrain of media education. Scientifically speaking, the ecotone is an ecological zone where 2 unique ecosystems are juxtaposed; more precisely, it describes the overlap, a zone of transition and tension at the edges of 2 distinct ecologies eg. where the land meets water in an estuarine tidal area. Natural life forms in this changeable environment are highly biodiverse, adaptable and used to disturbance. She contrasts this hyper edge-activity with the relatively slower core activities of life forms on either side of the land/sea divide but recognises the interdependence of all three zones.

I suggest a reading of pages 25 – 45 (this doesn’t equate to 20 pages of pure text) where she details 2 intersecting continua: the vertical axis corresponding to modes of learning with Accreditation (or rather Assessment) at one end and Experimentation at the other; and on the horizontal axis – 20th Century Learning at one end and 21st Century Knowledge Creation on the other (see p. 32). Two lines are then drawn to demarcate an interstitial zone within the 2nd and 3rd quadrant that equates to the fertile ecotone. Relating this to practical media education, I’m interested in the strengths and limitations of this analogy and its capacity to frame the “seeding of a culture of innovation” and to envision the rhizomic (rhizomatic?) relations/mechanisms/”digital corridors”/elastic spin-offs that populate this dynamic space.

 

 

PGR Development Workshops for May & June 2013

PG research

The following workshops are available during May and June 2013:

Finding information and Using Researcher Tools (Repeat workshop)
Outline: The session will include an introduction to advanced searching skills, using citations smartly and analytical tools
Date: Wednesday 1 May 2013
Time: 1.30 pm – 2.45 pm
Room: S102 – Studland House – Lansdowne Campus
Facilitator: Emma Crowley
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Managing your citations using Endnote and Endnote Web (Repeat workshop)
Outline: The session will include an introduction to Endnote and Endnote Web, exporting from databases, Cite While You Write tool
Date: Wednesday 1 May 2013
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Room: S102 – Studland House – Lansdowne Campus
Facilitator: Emma Crowley
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Transfer Process
Outline: The aim of the workshop is to prepare students for the process of the transfer from MPhil/PhD to PhD. All students who register for a research degree have the choice to proceed in their studies towards an MPhil award or to transfer onto a doctoral route that leads to a PhD.
Date: Wednesday 8 May 2013
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Room: EB708 – Executive Business Centre – Lansdowne Campus
Facilitator: Professor Anthea Innes
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Public Engagement (REPEAT workshop)
Outline: The workshop will look at What Public Engagement is; Why does it matter?; How to do it; Engagement in practice; Internal support for creating a supportive environment for engagement.
Date: Wednesday 8 May 2012
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Room: PG22, Poole House – Talbot Campus
Facilitator: Dr Rebecca Edwards
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Nvivo Training (Introduction Session)
Outline: This training will provide a comprehensive overview of Nvivo Software and will look at building your database and coding your data
Date: Monday 10th June 2013
Time: 9 am – 4.30 pm
Room: S102 – Studland House – Lansdowne Campus
Facilitator: Ben Meehan – External Consultant from QDATRAINING PLC
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Academic Writing LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE
Outline: This workshop covers essential good practice in writing, editing techniques and methods of improving organisation.
Date: Wednesday 12 June 2013
Time: 9.30 am – 5 pm
Room: S219 – Studland House – Lansdowne Campus
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Preparing for your First Review
Outline: The aim of the workshop is to familiarise students with the purpose and role of their first review
Date: Wednesday 26 June 2013
Time: 9.30 am – 11 am
Room: PG16LT (Poole House)
Facilitators: Dr Fiona Knight
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Fusion in Action Conference 2013

Fusion

Thank you to all who attended last week’s Fusion in Action Conference and celebrated BU’s success in Fusion initiatives.

The Fusion presentations from staff and students were inspirational and I am pleased to have had such good feedback on these. Several of the presentations are available at I:\R&KEO\Public\Fusion in Action .

The Fusion surgery sessions provided a key opportunity to ask about Fusion Investment Funding and the posters provided excellent examples of projects already funded under the scheme.

Congratulations and Good Luck

BU research, Featured academics

March had a good deal of activity around bids being submitted and awarded, with Schools winning consultancy contracts, research grants and organising Short Courses.

For Applied Sciences congratulations are due to Rob Britton for a successful month of March with several awards obtained which include the Environment Agency, Barbel Society and the University of Toulouse; to Ross Hill for his consultancy contract with Joint Nature Conservation Committee; to Roger Herbert and Richard Stillman for their consultancy contract with Natural England to assess Birds of Prey in Chichester Harbour; to Pippa Gillingham for her short course on GIS for Environment Managers.  Good luck to Pippa with her application to the Royal Entomological society; to Emilie Hardouin and Demetra Andreou for their individual applications to the British Ecological Society; to Anita Diaz for her application to the Soil Association; to David Parham for his application to English Heritage; and to Adrian Newton for his application to DEFRA.

Congratulations to the Business School for Donald Nordberg’s award from the British Academy to research ‘News Media as corporate governance watchdogs’.  Good luck to Huiping Xian and Sachiko Takeda for their application to the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (DAJF) and to Hiroko Oe who has also applied to DAJF.

For DEC good luck with the consultancy contract submitted by Marcin Budka and Bogdan Gabrys to Western Union Financial Services; to Simon Thompson for his application to the Multiple Sclerosis Society to investigate post-traumatic growth in people with multiple sclerosis; and for the TOSCANA application submitted by Mark Hadfield to the European Commission.

For Health and Social Care congratulations are due to Luisa Cescutti-Butler for her award from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme; to Keith Brown for his consultancy contract from Hampshire County Council; to Anthea Innes, Michele Board, Vanessa Heaslip and Sue Barker for their consultancy training for Gracewell Healthcare; also to Anthea for her short course with RBCH; to Michele Board for her short course with the Isle of Wight NHS Trust; to Susan Clarke for her short course with Solent NHS Trust; and to Clive Andrewes for several short courses with Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust, Southern Health, North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust together with Bernie Edwards, Wessex Deanery and NHS Bournemouth and Poole.  Good luck to Elizabeth Rosser and Andrew Harding for their application to the General Nursing Council for England and Wales Trust; and to Ann Hemingway, Sarah Hean and Lee-Ann Fenge-Davies for their application to the European Commission.

Congratulations to the Media School for Kris Erickson’s award from the ESRC; Jian Chang for his award from the Royal Society to research ‘Mobile Physically based Computation for Computer Animation’; to Tom Watson, Anastasios Theofilou and Georginana Grigore for their award from The Arthur W Page Centre; to Liam Toms, Graham Goode and Melanie Gray for their consultancy contract with Dorset County Council; and to Stephanie Farmer for her consultancy contract to develop a web site for Richard Cole.  Good luck to Bronwen Thomas and Julia Round for their application to AHRC; to Julian McDougall, Mark Readman and Marketa Zezulkova for their application to EPSRC; and to Iain MacRury and Richard Berger for their application to EPSRC; to Jian Jun Zhang for his application to the EPSRC for continued funding for the Doctoral Training Centre; to Laura Hampshaw with her short course with the RBCH; and to Dan Jackson, Einar Thorsen and Christos Gatzidis for their application to HEA.

Finally, for the School of Tourism congratulations go to Lisa Stuchberry for her contracts with NHS Dorset, Dorset County Hospital and Bangor University; to Stephen Calver for his contract with Bournemouth Borough Council; to Sarah Hambidge for her award from the Bournemouth Borough Council for the Bournemouth Arts Festival; and to Jon Hibbert for his award from Resort Development Organisation.  Good luck to Nicky Pretty for her application to the National Trust.

Best wishes

Matthew

Service Computing Seminar Series

BU research

As part of the SSC project, funded by Bournemouth University Fusion Investment Fund, we would like to invite you to the seminar series.

14:00- 15:00 Monday 29 April 2013
P410 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

Speaker: Dr. Peng Liang, Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Title: Ontology-based Software Architecture Documentation

Abstract.  A common approach to software architecture documentation in industry projects is the use of file-based documents (e.g., Word documents). This documentation approach offers a single-dimensional perspective on the software architectural knowledge contained. Knowledge retrieval from file-based architecture documentation is efficient if the perspective chosen fits the needs of the readers; it is less so if the perspective does not match the needs of the readers. In this talk, I will describe an approach we developed aimed at addressing architecture documentation retrieval issues. We employed software ontology in a semantic wiki optimized for architecture documentation. We also evaluated this ontology-based documentation approach in a controlled industry experiment involving software professionals. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach is found to be better than that of the traditional file-based approach.

14:00-16:00 Wednesday 1 May 2013
P402 (Poole House, Talbot Campus) 

Speaker: Prof. Marco Aiello, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Title: The Smart Grid’s Big Data Generating Potentials

Abstract. The Smart Power Grid promises to not only provide for a more reliable distribution infrastructure, but also give the end-users better pricing, information, and freedom. The promise is fuelled by a pervasive digitalization of the energy production and distribution network that will finally involve utilities, governments, and end-users. The real advantages of the smart grid will be available to all, only if the physical infrastructure of energy distribution is supported by adequate information systems. In this talk, I will review the current state and possible evolutions of the concept of a smart grid, I will point to the (big) data that future information systems will need to manage and, finally, indicate possible uses for such information.

Speaker: Prof. Xinbo Gao, Xidian University, China
Title: Image Quality Assessment

Abstract. With the development of imaging technologies, visual information, recorded by images and videos, has become the main source for knowledge acquisition. In the process of image acquisition, processing, transmission, and storage, some artefacts or noise maybe introduced to images, which will degrade the visual quality. To improve the performance of image processing, it is necessary to assess image quality. Therefore, image quality assessment (IQA) is the prerequisite and foundation of imaging or image processing system optimization. The objective of IQA is to provide computational models to measure the perceptual quality of a given image. Recently, a large number of methods have been designed to evaluate the quality of images. In this talk, I will introduce some popular IQA metrics, especially several IQA metrics proposed by my group. They are organized into 3 categories, full-reference metrics, reduced-reference metrics and no-reference metrics.

School of Health and Social Care – PhD / Open Research Seminar on Wednesday 24 April 2013 in R201, Royal London House at 1-1.50 pm,

PG research

You are cordially invited to the lunch time seminar below which is one of a regular series of HSC PhD seminars which are open to all.  Please feel free to bring your lunch.

‘The voice of people living with Mycobacterium Ulcerans(Buruli ulcer) in the Amansie West district of Ghana’
Alex Effah

Abstract

Mycobacterium ulcerans (locally known as Buruli ulcer) is a rare dermatological (skin) disease which affects mainly children under 15 years of age in many developing countries. Due to lack of knowledge of the disease many sufferers seek medical intervention at a time when the disease has progressed leading to extensive ulcers which are difficult to treat. As a consequence many sufferers end up with severe lesions which have led to the destruction of major organs such as limb amputations, loss of genitals, varied forms of bodily disfigurements and prominent scars as well as other contracture deformities which affect their activities of daily living.

To-date the biomedical approach to understanding Buruli ulcer dominates the literature. It must be borne in mind that beyond morbidity and mortality Buruli ulcer inflicts enormous physical, social and psychological costs not only on the individual sufferer but his/her family and the community, yet there is lack of a rigorous qualitative study to understand the illness experience of people living with this devastating skin disease. This study therefore used the grounded theory approach to understand the illness experience of people living with Buruli ulcer in the endemic district of Amansie West. The constant comparative method of analysis led to the core category of Re-living the trauma of my ulcer. The grounded theory has uncovered the reasons why people with Buruli ulcer report late for medical treatment, the effects of the illness on their quality of life and well-being as well as their perceived support needs.  Recommendations and areas for further research into the lives of people living with Buruli ulcer are explored.

Alex Effah is at the write-up stage of his PhD.

Don’t miss finding out how you can engage with KTPs and SMART awards…..

BU research, Funding opportunities, Training

 

 

CALLNG ALL ACADEMICS WHO WISH TO ENGAGE WITH BUSINESSES!

Staff are invited to attend the:

 ‘Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and SMART awards events’ 

 Both these schemes are UK-wide programmes funded by the Technology Strategy Board.

 

  •  KTP provides academics with opportunities for the practical application of their research. Importantly, they are an opportunity for academics to engage with the business community.
  •  SMART awards assist businesses to engage in research & development projects in areas such as science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and services can emerge. Whilst universities may not apply directly, they may act as a sub-contractor to an applicant.                      

  If you are interested in learning more about KTP and SMART awards, please come along to one of the following events:

 Event Dates:

 Friday 26th April         Breakfast Meeting   – Talbot Campus (KG103) –          8.30am – 10.30am

 ktpbreakfast2013.eventbrite.co.uk

 Tuesday 30th April         Executive Business Centre (7th Floor)     – Lansdowne –             6pm – 8pm

 ktpandsmart2013.eventbrite.co.uk 

(To book your place –  just go to the ‘Eventbrite link’ listed under each date.  There are only a limited number of spaces left, so please book asap to avoid missing out)

 

  • Local businesses are going to be invited to attend these sessions too, which will provide a valuable opportunity for academics to network and develop potential working relationships with them.

 

For further information, please contact Lucy Rossiter.

 

How’s our Slovene?

BU research, EU, Research news

BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health was well represented at a recent conference run by the Midwifery Association of Slovenia in Čateẑ.  Professor Vanora Hundley and Luisa Cescutti Butler were invited by the President Anita Prelec to speak to midwives, nurses and students at their bi-annual conference: Skrb Za Dravje Žensk In Otrok.

I was asked to speak on the issue of intervention in early labour, something that is causing concern in many European countries, and whether midwives should be encouraging women to stay at home for longer. I started my session with a tentative “Dober dan” (Good morning) – my pronunciation must have been acceptable as I received a round of applause! However, the rest of my presentation was thankfully in English. The presentation was well received and clearly generated a lot of interest with discussion continuing over lunch.

Luisa, a senior lecturer in midwifery, spoke about the examination of the newborn baby and who should be involved – the midwife or the doctor. This was a question that we had discussed the previous day at a round table event with key stakeholders in Slovenia. Her presentation also gave us the opportunity to ask midwives what they thought. Participants were asked to complete a short questionnaire before the presentation and a second brief questionnaire afterwards. We are looking forward to seeing their responses – although we will rely heavily on colleagues from the University of Ljubljana to translate them!

Funding for our Slovenian trip was through networking grants – an EUNF award for Vanora to discuss research collaboration and an ERASMUS Preparatory Visit award for Luisa to explore the possibility of a staff mobility exchange. We both achieved these aims (more on that in our next blog), but this additional opportunity was too good to miss.

SOCIAD Project gains an FP7 Marie Curie CIG Award

Awarded & submitted bids, Funding opportunities, Research news, Uncategorized

We have been recently awarded an EC FP7 Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (CIG) for a project entitled Social Adaptation: When Software Gives Users a Voice (SOCIAD). The project will provide engineering framework to develop software which will get users’ feedback at run-time and then use this feedback to adapt services and improve quality.

The total contribution of the EC is 100K Euros and the duration of the project is 4 years. Marie Curie CIG is a competitive grant. 912 proposals were submitted in our call which had the deadline of 18 September 2012 (read more..). Only 22% of the evaluated proposals have been selected for funding under this call.

The project team includes Dr. Raian Ali, Professor Keith Phalp, Associate Professor Jacqui Taylor and 3 existing PhD students and 2 new PhD students, the latter to start and be funded partially by this grant. The application for the first position is now open so please help us and circulate details of the post, so that we can attract excellent candidates:  http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AGH143/phd-studentship/

CIG could be particularly useful funding mechanism for researchers / lecturers who recently joined BU. The next deadline is 18 September 2013 (read more..). CIG applicants must be experienced researchers from any country in the world, with at least 4 years’ full-time research experience or a doctoral degree. CIG is meant to encourage Experienced Researchers to settle in / return to Europe. To apply, you must have been actively engaged in research, but you cannot have carried out your work in the country of your host organisation for more than twelve months over the last three years. Finally, you must have never benefitted from a European or an International Reintegration Grant (ERG or IRG) nor from a Career Integration Grant.

If you are interested in applying to this grant and / or would like to know more please let us know and we will be happy to share our experience with you.

Grappling with the meaning of theory

Uncategorized

Theoretical awareness is essential in the development and delivery of effective interprofessional education and collaborative practice. IN-2-THEORY – interprofessional theory, scholarship and collaboration, chaired by Sarah Hean from Bournemouth University is an international community of practice that aims to build theoretical rigour in this field.

IN-2-THEORY members Carol John (AECC, UK), Liz Anderson (University of Leicester, UK), Chris Green (University of Essex, UK), Cath O’Halloran (University of Huddersfield, UK), Richard Pitt (University of Nottingham, UK), Phil Clark (University of Rhode Island, USA) and Sarah Hean (Bournemouth University, UK) are currently working on a Best Evidence in Medical Education review into the effectiveness of Theory in Interprofessional Education. The protocol is available at http://www.bemecollaboration.org/Reviews+In+Progress/Interprofessional+Curricula/. 
Any critique welcome.

Finding (and defining) Friendly in New York City

Fusion, Research themes, Uncategorized

‘Dementia Friendly’ is a sound bite used frequently at the moment in my field. This is in part due to the Prime Ministers 2012 Dementia Challenge which has a particular component aspiring to the creation of 20 dementia friendly towns/cities by 2015. But what does dementia friendly actually mean? and how do we know when we have an example of something that is dementia friendly? A colleague and I spent a week in New York City earlier this month and we were truly ‘wowed’ by the dementia friendly initiatives we witnessed. The first was at MOMA where they have an established programme for people with dementia that we were lucky enough to be able to join one afternoon. What made this programme dementia friendly? Three things in my view; first the educators (their term) made no attempt to ‘dumb down’ their offering to those with dementia (too often people with dementia are treated as less able without first having tested the waters to see if  just because the label of ‘dementia’ applied means that the person is unable to participate in various everyday activites ‘as usual’ or if it needs modified in some way, in this case participating in an arts appreciation programme). Two it was extremely difficult to tell who might have dementia and who were the accompanying family members and finally the contributions from the group reflected the individual perspective different people have on what is ‘art’, what they like, or in the case of one man what was ‘trash’ (every piece we stopped at!). We were also invited to join a choir rehearsing in a cathedral (an extremely modern building that we walked by twice before realising this was the cathedral, another story…) for the final time before performing at MOMA the following week (we didn’t get to see the real performance as back at BU by then). This choir group, known as ‘The Unforgettables’, was amazing, the two directors created an unbelievable energy in the room, there was laughter, fun, serious points made about music/signing. Individuals who could barely walk took their turn to stand by the piano and sing heart rending solos which brought a tear to the eye, a lump to the throat. By contrast, other couples sang humourous duets. This was an inspiring group to witness. The choir directors had again made a conscious decision not to ‘dumb down’ their approach but to encourage and challenge, in the same way that they would any other choral group. The results were incredible. We were offered hospitality by the group members, the only tell tale sign that one particular man had dementia was his bringing us 5 cups of iced tea and numerous plates of fruit/cake/biscuits as he didn’t remember that he had already been up to the table and brought us over some goodies. We also visited the Metropolitan Museum, again with long established groups for people with dementia. Some involve art making, others art appreciation, others tours of different parts of the museum. Again the underpinning philosophy is one of ability to engage, to promote intellectual stimulation, social interaction and also the programmes encourage a degree of physical activity by choosing exhibits at various places throughout the building (mental, physical and social stimulation being key to reducing risk of developing dementia, but also to maintaining well-being once diagnosed).

We went to New York because we had heard about the programmes and wanted to see if possible to learn and implement back here in Dorset but also to meet with academic colleagues, present at NYU, meet with the US Alzheimer Association (which has really made us think about donations and fund raising to support our work) and these were also very productive parts of the trip and reinforced that the approach we are taking at BU Dementia Institute is one that we should continue (mainly that engagement and collaboration with the range of stakeholders that has been guiding our work should continue). But what stands out for me is the energy and enthusiasm of those running groups for people with dementia and the huge engagement and enjoyment this approach created. The US might not have a ‘dementia friendly agenda’ being driven at a national policy level,  and New York might not immediately spring to mind as a place where one could live well with dementia, but the initiatives we saw clearly demonstrate the possibility to create dementia friendly environments even in places where sign posting might not be clear, transport busy and where the assumption that services ‘cost’ can be challenged (all the programmes we joined are free to those with dementia).