Category / Sociology & Social Policy

The KTP Advantage

Festival of Learning

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my KTP I…

Provided consultation into the design of an innovative model of dementia care: ‘Shared Care’ The aim of Shared Care is to offer an alternative lifestyle choice to people living with dementia. At present, options for people needing support living with dementia are limited to in home care packages, outsourced respite and long term care home placement.

Brendoncare sought the expertise at Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) to ensure the built and psycho-social environments, methods of care delivery and technologies implemented within Shared Care were ‘dementia friendly’ and to ensure the voice of people living with dementia has an input to the design of services. This was achieved through consultation with people with dementia, family carers and formal care staff.

Highlights of the project were…

Being given the opportunity to take responsibility for all aspects of my project from ensuring the consultation work was ethically proficient to recruitment to dissemination and succeeding in meeting the expectations of the client. Moreover, being funded to go and discuss my work with peers at Alzheimer’s Europe 2013 in Malta was a great experience.

Representing Brendoncare at BUDI's internal conference in May

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Thing about being a KTP Associate is…

Applying the theoretical knowledge and skills learnt during education into practice, with the support of an expert knowledge base and a practice base receptive to service innovation. The opportunities to present findings at board room level and hear action points being raised as a direct result of your work is also extremely satisfying.

From KTP I have learnt…

Before KTP I was just another graduate. Now I have professional academic experience, I have completed a challenging and intensive project within dementia studies; met peers and discussed my work at an international conference and have become a valued member of BUDI; a team committed to improving the lives of people with dementia. KTP has confirmed, reinforced and enabled me to start an academic career in dementia research.

Life after KTP is…

I am about to start my PhD study: An investigation into the strategic implementation of a model of dementia care into a care home environment. I am also planning to get findings of this project published in a peer reviewed academic journal.

I recommend KTP because…

It provides one of the best opportunities I’ve seen in the graduate market. It gives associate experience in both academic and practice-based working environments, space to develop skills, control and ownership over project work and much support along the way. I would recommend any graduate to grasp this opportunity and get the KTP advantage!

 

Kicking off! Sociology + International Placements

 

In May 2013 four students from HSC’s BA Sociology & Social Policy programme undertook a 25-day placement in Malaysia, hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia located on the beautiful, historical island of Penang under the conscientious supervision of HSC’s Visiting Professor, Dr Azlinda Azman, Chair of Social Work, USM. The aim of the placement was to enable students to apply a sociological analysis to the constructions of welfare and care-giving in a very different socio-cultural context.

The four students, Heidi Crew, Samineh Hall, Dannielle Connolly and Roxanne Boydell successfully applied for BU Global Horizon funding. This valuable financial assistance enabled the students to help to spearhead the first set of planned steps towards the internationalisation of the Sociology+ programmes in delivering a FUSION focus.

Placements were divided into those for elderly citizens or children and young people with disabilities. The students were able to choose from a placement that related to their Level I study options, and go on to experience a number of different settings. The following extracts from their detailed narratives offer a glimpse into how the students negotiated unfamiliar constructions of need and care in an unfamiliar, post-colonial cultural setting.

Elderly care residential Homes (Sami, Roxanne and Danni):

The donations that the Home receives are very impressive. Even though families are unable to look after their elders due to the change in family structures and work, the elderly still hold a very important place within the community. People of Penang speak very fondly of the Home.

All in all, we learnt a lot from our weeks at placement and were very grateful to have been able to witness first-hand how the elderly were looked after in a different culture.  From this experience we have drawn that there are many similarities in the way the Homes are run in Malaysia.  

Unlike in the UK, the most popular Homes are charities and run on public donations.  They receive many of these as Asia still regards their elderly population very highly.  However, with the growing elderly population, we were able to witness the impact of the gap between young and old and the change in the family structures.  All the Homes were struggling to find enough volunteers to help look after their residents as most of the young generation now (in particular young women who usually had the role of carer) have careers and may opt to put their relatives in a Home rather than adopt the old traditions of caring for the elderly at home. 

Working with children with disabilities (Heidi):

World Play Day was another of my most memorable days. This was based at my second placement in Balik Pulau, where I would be based for the last 3 weeks I was in Malaysia. It is literally in the middle of nowhere: no shops near by and a 2-hour bus journey from Penang.

World Play Day was run by the older residents (18 and above) with varying disabilities, physical and mental. All the children from First Steps and any other children with disabilities within the area or outside, such as the mainland  were invited to join in. ‘We are special’ was their motto, and every helper was given a T-Shirt saying this.

I was personally in charge of the ‘starch pool’. This was where the children could get used to texture, and some of them loved it. It was a swimming pool of rice flour and water, so that it made a thick gloopy mixture and was dyed pink with food colouring to appeal to the younger children.

Maddie, one of the other helpers, was in charge of the water slide. This was a tarpaulin sheet covered in water and washing up liquid, whilst there were other activities going on too. Everyone had a different station that they manned. I was just as covered in the starch at the end as the children were. The key to success on days like this was to get involved. 

The day was and is sponsored annually by Starbuck Coffee. I never used to put money in their charity boxes that said ‘to help Asian communities’. Now that I’ve seen exactly what that money does and the amount of smiles that are produced from it I will never walk away from that charity box without putting something in.