Dementia Care Research Programme

PenCLAHRC supports a programme of work on the topic of dementia and dementia care. This programme aims to enhance the experience of care, to improve health outcomes, and to reduce unnecessary costs for patients with dementia and their carers. It is underpinned by:

• The expressed uncertainties of those with dementia, their informal carers and those in professional and non-professional paid caring roles - most clearly expressed by the 146 research questions and ten priorities identified by the Alzheimer’s Society and others via the James Lind Alliance process

• A commitment to review, develop, test and implement evidence-based complex interventions directly related to the care needs of people with dementia using the best performing research methods

• A promise to develop a competent cadre of clinical academic research clinicians from nursing and allied health care professions.

In addition to the projects and PhD studentships supported as part of core CLAHRC funding, we have been awarded additional funding from the NIHR as part of their Research Capacity in Dementia Care Pilot Programme (RCDCP). The aim of this programme is to develop new researchers in dementia care, from clinical (non-medical) backgrounds, who have the potential to become leaders in the field.

PenCLAHRC staff are also leading a new Centre of Excellence in Dementia Care Research, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society. Work carried out under this collaboration will look to improve the quality of life for people with dementia, and care in advanced dementia.

Our Projects

PenCLAHRC has supported a number of projects on dementia research and continues to focus considerable resources in this important area. In addition, the Evidence Synthesis Team has also conducted a number of systematic reviews in the area of dementia research. Read more about all these projects on our Dementia Care Research Programme projects page.

PhD Studentships

PenCLAHRC currently supports 10 dementia related PhD students - six as core CLAHRC funded projects and four via the RCDCP programme, which supports PhD fellows exclusively from nursing and allied health care backgrounds.  Find out more about these projects on our Dementia Care Research Programme PhD studentships page.

Our People

We have a number of PenCLAHRC staff working on the dementia care programme and supporting our PhD studentships:

• Professor David Richards
• Professor Bridie Kent
• Professor Rod Sheaff
• Professor Linda Clare
• Dr Jo Thompson Coon
• Dr Vicki Goodwin
• Dr Iain Lang
• Dr Rebecca Abbott
• Ian Sherriff

For more information on the RCDCP programme, please read the Research Capacity in Dementia Care Pilot Programme (RCDCP) document taken from our annual report 2015/16.