Helping people make decisions

Our DECIDE project (with the School of Health Sciences) is looking at how relatives and paid carers approach issues of mental capacity and decision-making in relation to everyday decisions made by frail older people.

• Do people in real life adhere to the principles of the Mental Capacity Act?
• How do they decide if a frail older person is capable of making a competent choice?

We aim to use our findings for a larger study aimed at improving practice in this area.

Dementia and employment

The recent abolition of the default retirement age in the UK and the gradual raising of the state pension age will result in an increasing proportion of workers over the age of 50 and a new generation of workers aged over 65. This will inevitably mean that more people will develop dementia while they are still in employment. We plan a systematic enquiry into this challenge.

As a result of the ageing population, greater numbers of older people will need healthcare. For example, in the UK, two-thirds of patients in general hospitals are older than 70, of whom half have dementia or delirium or both. Some of our work involves exploring the preparation of the workforce that cares for older people with dementia.

Promoting creative arts

We are engaged in Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research to explore the utility of visual arts interventions in enhancing the health and wellbeing of those with dementia.

Interventions are being developed for delivery in Newcastle, Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire and north Wales in inpatient, community and residential care environments.

The work aims to benefit individuals with dementia as well as developing dementia friendly communities using the arts.