Category / Ageing and Dementia

Finding (and defining) Friendly in New York City

Fusion, Research themes

‘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).

State of Yawning – Santander Travel Scholarship awarded to Dr Simon Thompson

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

Studying yawning has the potentially benefit of identifying underlying neurological disorders. Strong evidence of a link between yawning and fatigue, and with multiple sclerosis, is known. Mechanisms involved in excessive yawning are not understood and my work has shown a definitive link between yawning and cortisol levels in normal people. However, since people with multiple sclerosis often yawn excessively, it is important to establish whether or not their cortisol levels rise as with normal people since prolonged rises in cortisol levels indicate stress and may also indicate adverse neurological symptomatology. My work has generated a new hypothesis to explain the occurrence of excessive yawning and is complementary to Dr Gallup’s theories on thermoregulation in multiple sclerosis, which is pioneering. I am meeting Dr Gallup (Princeton University) in New York to discuss further studies in order to stay ahead of research progress. This is an excellent opportunity for kudos for Bournemouth University in being the first to carry out such research.

Want a challenge? short term secondment opportunity @ the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute

The BU Dementia Institute is growing fast with staff or students involved in various ways from all BU schools. We have a short term secondment opportunity (3 months) to work with us as Project manager to help develop our profile, income streams and to work on selected existing projects. Interested? Take a look at http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/jobs/hsc184.html and drop me an email if you would like to discuss ainnes@bournemouth.ac.uk

SILVER – Active ageing: Open call for robotic based pre-commercial solutions

Funding opportunities

In the European Union, countries are facing tough times in the health and elderly care sector: while populations age and require more care services, countries are under pressure to make these services more cost efficient and effective. The pan-European SILVER project (Supporting Independent LiVing for the Elderly through Robotics) aims to demonstrate how public services can be rejuvenated by procuring R&D services that will develop higher quality and more sustainable elderly care solutions.   

The SILVER project searches for new, innovative ways to acquire public sector health services by utilizing a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process designed for optimally matching R&D with procurers’ needs. The goal is to find new technologies to assist elderly people’s ability to continue living independently at home. By the use of robotics or other related technologies, the elderly are able to enjoy homelife even if they have physical or cognitive disabilities.

 Registrations for the competition can be made via the SILVER webpage at www.silverpcp.eu/call-for-tender/registration

 SILVER (Supporting Independent LiVing for the Elderly through Robotics) is a research and development project to establish and to execute a Pre-Commercial Procurement process suitable for the conditions for cross-border project implementation across several EU countries. It is funded by the European Union under the ICT cooperation part of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7). The project started in January 2012 and will run for 51 months. SILVER has partners in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom.

 Status: OPEN

Open Date: 1st March 2013

Registration Close Date: 5th June 2013

Close Date: 12th June 2013

Website: www.silverpcp.eu/

e-mail: competitions@silverpcp.eu

Phone number: +44(0) 300 321 4357

Developing a working paper at BU

Fusion, PG research, Publishing, Research themes

I would like to make you aware of an exciting development at BU.

A multi-disciplinary group of BU academics has been meeting over the last 6 months in order to design a online journal that is capable of acting as a central focus for the dissemination of the high quality research and scholarly outputs from UG and PG dissertations, post graduate researchers, early career researchers and established academic staff. The group has designed a developmental working paper online journal that will support ‘would be’ authors and their potential publications. Although particular emphasis has been given to maximising high quality outputs of UG and PG students and early career academics, this online journal will be capable of supporting the potential of all those engaged in research and scholarship at BU.

Below are a series of Q & As:

 

What’s the name of the working paper?

The provisional title is eBU: Working Papers Online

 

How is the working paper structured?

The working paper will not be limited to any one discipline or allied to any one particular methodology, but will aim to publish articles driven by the key BU Research Themes: (Creative and Digital Economies, Culture and Society, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Environmental Change and Biodiversity, Green Economy and Sustainability, Health, Wellbeing and Ageing, Leisure and Recreation, Technology and Design). Apart from the build-up to launch, the working paper will have no deadlines or specific calls for papers. Instead, the working paper will work on a rolling submission process.

A set of author guidelines and details about formats are currently being considered and written. However, the guidelines are likely to accommodate a wide range of formats.

 

What are the submission processes for staff and students?

It is envisaged that staff will act as gatekeepers and encourage undergraduate and master’s students to submit high quality work into a format this is publishable. Post-graduate researchers and academic members of staff will be able to submit papers on their own accord.

After a short review from the editorial board, two designated BU academics will provide an initial quality check. The paper will then be uploaded to the internal intranet working paper site. This will allow any member of staff or student to read and offer feedback. However, within a few weeks the two designed reviewers will then provide a more comprehensive and detailed critical review. All reviews will take place in a safe, secure and INTERNAL environment. After a detailed review, students will then be encouraged to make any recommended changes and submit to external publication/or make their work available to be published on external working paper website.

This working paper is set to go live in March.

 

Further information

If anyone is interested in becoming involved in helping to create this online journal, and/or at an editorial level please get in touch with Andrew Harding (aharding@bournemouth.ac.uk), Andrew Adams (aadams@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Fiona Knight (fknight@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

New PhD at HSC!

BU Challenges

Colleen Deane has recently joined the School of Health and Social Care to commence a BU matched funded PhD studentship investigating novel mechanisms regulating muscle mass in the elderly. Colleen has just successfully completed her Masters (with distinction) in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Health Promotion, where she investigated the effects of specific hormones (Testosterone) and polyphenols (Resveratrol) on artificially aged skeletal muscle cells, extracted from rodent mice. This PhD aims to enhance current understanding of the mechanisms regulating age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass (termed ‘sarcopenia’) and the associated reductions in mobility, general health and quality of life. Whilst exercise and nutritional interventions improve muscle size and function in young individuals, this response is attenuated in elderly muscle. Thus, using a combination of physiological and metabolic/molecular techniques these studies will investigate novel mechanisms underlying the blunted response of ageing muscle to exercise and nutritional growth stimuli. For further information contact Colleen on cdeane@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Are we born to yawn?

Fusion, R & KE Operations, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research Integritiy, Research themes

Yawning consistently poses a conundrum to neurologists and neuroscientists. Increasingly, evidence is found to link neurological disorders through the commonality of yawning episodes and contagious yawning. Despite discrete incidences (such as parakinesia brachialis oscitans) in brain stem ischaemic stroke patients, there is considerable debate over the reasons for yawning, with the mechanism of yawning still not fully understood. Cortisol is implicated in the stress response and fatigue; repetitive yawning may be the link between neurological disorders and with a strong correlation between yawning and a rise in cortisol levels. Evidence has now been found in support of the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis that proposes cortisol levels are elevated during yawning [1]. Additional data is in press, and further research is planned with longitudinal consideration to neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and stroke. Funding for such initiatives is currently being sought.

[1] Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(5), e4:1-9. Doi: i-www.jmr.org/2012/e4/

How Web 2.0 might revolutionise our research

Many of you will be familiar with the revolution that the internet is undergoing, with its growth of social networking, web applications, blogs and wikis. What I had not appreciated, until very recently, is what the full implications are for how we go about our research. I am sure that colleagues in DEC and the MediaSchoolare well ahead of the curve on this, but for the rest of us, the penny is perhaps only just beginning to drop. I recently attended a fascinating conference hosted by the European Social Simulation Association in Salzburg. This is a group of researchers united by a common interest in using computer programs to simulate human behaviour, and its implications for human society. This was very much a new arena for me; I was really attending to learn something about the agent-based modelling approaches that are the flavour of the month in these circles. But what most impressed me was the way researchers are now using web technologies to access data to explore in their models. For example, although I’d heard of “crowdsourcing” before, I’d never really seen it in practice, and what it can deliver. I was most impressed by groups using tools such as Twitter, together with mapping applications such as Google maps, to produce highly informative maps showing the movements and wellbeing of large numbers of people. A great example is what the LSE is doing to map happiness – yes, really – http://www.mappiness.org.uk/. Another example, from the University of Leeds, has been using Twitter to map the movements of commuters in and out of the city. What is perhaps most astonishing is that large numbers of people seem keen to participate in these research projects. Potentially useful tools being used by this research community include open source mapping initiatives such as Open Street Map http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and Maptube http://www.maptube.org/, as well as Survey mapper http://www.surveymapper.com/current.aspx. You might find this reference useful if you’re interested in learning more – http://ssc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/524

Radio coverage of dementia research in Dorset

Dementia has received a good bit of local coverage on BBC Solent over the last three days. This kicked off with a panel discussion featuring people with dementia talking about their experiences of living with dementia on Saturday ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrth3 Feature starts 1hr 4minutes into the show)

On Sunday morning dementia continued as a topic for discussion with the issue of how to make churches dementia friendly (available to listen to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrtlx (Feature starts 1hr 44 minutes into the show)).

Then on Monday morning Bournemouth University Dementia Institute were given the opportunity to talk on the News Hour about the low rate of diagnosis of dementia in Dorset and to highlight key findings from a project focusing on Dementia Friendly Tourism that Anthea Innes and Stephen Page have been leading that is currently being written up for publication. (feature starts 42 minutes into the show
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrtsw).

The whole notion of ‘Dementia Friendliness’ is one that is catching on in the UK and beyond with Dementia Friendly Communities being supported by the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge. The dementia work at BU embraces this concept and is actively applying it not only to the tourism and leisure research mentioned above but in our overall approach to our research and education work.

Dementia Cupcake Club – research in the community

Throughout July and August 2012 BUDI (on behalf of Bournemouth Borough Council) have been delivering a series of sessions called the Cupcake Club at a local care scheme for people with dementia. For six weeks participants have been taking part in a variety of fun activities such as decorating cupcakes, arts and crafts, gardening and playing the Nintendo Wii. The purpose of the Cupcake Club was to provide a fun and informal environment for people with dementia to be creative and active over the summer period. The Cupcake Club has provided BUDI with a wonderful opportunity to go into the community and meet a group of interesting, funny and charismatic people. The sessions were thoroughly enjoyed by both the participants and the research team and apart from providing a lot of laughter, the sessions have shown that people with dementia are as capable as anyone else and that they are also quite good at Wii bowling!

A second Cupcake Club group has now started and analysis of the evaluation data from both Cupcake Clubs will begin in the Autumn. All findings will be drawn together in an evaluation report for Bournemouth Bourough Council towards the end of the year. In the meantime there is a lot of fun for the BUDI team faciliating these sessions in the community and for the participants.