This proposal addresses the James Lind Alliance and Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Roadmap priorities of promoting independence at home for people living with dementia, with a particular focus on underserved groups including those living alone with dementia without a regular informal carer, those with low-health/digital literacy, and/or who do not speak English, and/or from ethnic minority groups. It will evaluate approaches to enable the dementia care workforce and optimise health/social care systems to address this priority.
We will build on our research Supporting Carers In Decision-Making In Covid-19, Centre of Excellence Programme on Primary-Care Led Dementia Care (PriDem), and our new NIHR Three Schools grant “Forward with dementia: co-producing support for social care needs”. We will co-produce/evaluate innovative models of personalised care for those living with dementia at home, working in partnership with stakeholders including people affected by dementia, health and social care practitioners and commissioners within NT ICS, particularly in underserved areas of high need. Examples of workforce/health and social care system innovations include upskilling members of extended primary care/community teams, e.g., social prescribing workers, health care assistants, clinical pharmacists linked to social care/the voluntary sector. A priority is how we can best support equitable access to care, including navigating e-health systems and remote consultations.
The research is likely to include rapid evidence reviewing, qualitative work, co-production workshops and an implementation study, building on existing work of the team and recent regional mapping of community dementia services already conducted. The Fellow would be supported by a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in these methods and in partnering with people affected by dementia to co-produce service innovations. This proposal will build capacity in applied research in dementia in community settings at the interface of primary care, social care and public health, an area with very few active research groups across England.
