Building links with seldom-heard and seldom-asked older communities
Read how Prof Mark Hawley at the University of Sheffield is connecting with “seldom-heard” communities to ensure his project is representative and inclusive.
Research projects
Improving the quality of life for care home residents with chronic diseases
When nearing the end of their life, care home residents with chronic diseases can often find themselves in and out of hospital. This affects their quality of life and is distressing for both them and their families. Prof. Irene Higginson and Drs Anna Bone and Clare Ellis-Smith, from the Cicely Saunders Institute, initiated the Integrated Community Palliative Partnership (ICPP) project to investigate how to improve care for people in care homes with long-term illnesses.
Can mindfulness help prevent dementia in older adults at risk?
Dr Tim Whitfield at University College London undertook a PhD that looked at predicting the onset of dementia in people with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and investigated how mindfulness may help prevent cognitive decline.
Improving geriatric care through a new innovative training programme for medical students
Despite the UK’s ageing population, there is a lack of training in geriatric care for undergraduate medical students. In collaboration with colleagues, Dr Grace Pearson and Dr Emily Henderson, both at the University of Bristol, have developed a new undergraduate curriculum that delivers more effective training on how to care holistically for older people. They set out to evaluate the training so see whether it can inspire more students to pursue careers in geriatric medicine.
Unravelling the mystery of frozen shoulder
Frozen shoulder is a painful and disabling condition, but how it develops remains unknown. Read how Hamez Gacaferi’s work is starting to unravel this mystery.
A helping hand with insulin injections: training Healthcare Support Workers to support older people with diabetes
It’s best practice for people with diabetes to look after their health by injecting their own insulin. As people get older, however, they are likely to have other conditions that make this harder or unsafe to do. Dr Karen Stenner, from the University of Surrey and Principal Investigator of the CINDI Project, set out to evaluate the emerging practice of registered nurses delegating insulin injections to Healthcare Support Workers in community nursing teams. Could this alleviate workload pressures and bring benefits to patients and nursing teams alike?
Harnessing health data to improve care for older people
When Dr Oliver Todd from the University of Leeds embarked on a Dunhill Medical Trust Research Training Fellowship aimed at finding out whether blood pressure management is linked to an increased risk of falls, it opened up a whole new world of research to improve care for older people.
Can the epigenetic clock predict musculoskeletal disease?
Almost two-thirds of people aged 65 and over live with musculoskeletal disease, but current methods of predicting who is most at risk have limited use. Through his DMT-funded PhD, academic clinician Dr Nicholas Fuggle made an exciting discovery that could help to predict musculoskeletal ageing ahead of time.
Improving the lives of people living in care homes through the power of storytelling
Clinical linguist Dr Lucy Dipper from City University researches the power of storytelling to improve older adults’ communication skills and wellbeing. She and her team set out to design and test the best way of supporting care homes to deliver storytelling activities for their residents.
Why does an infection after stroke cause worse disability?
Recovering from a stroke is hard enough yet many patients go on to get an infection, sometimes months into their recovery. For some of these patients, this can lead to more disability. Dr Rebecca Trueman, at the University of Nottingham, led a pilot study to uncover new targets that could help to protect recovering stroke patients.
Keeping you moving with arthritis: an effective alternative to total knee replacement
The gold standard treatment for knee arthritis is a total joint replacement. Yet one in four who have this surgery are unhappy with results and continue to experience pain and discomfort. Dr Amy Garner, an orthopaedic surgeon, investigated whether combinations of smaller, partial knee replacements could be an effective alternative.
Hospital, hospice or home? How social deprivation affects end of life care
End of life care is a sensitive but hugely important subject. Many people say that they would like to die at home rather than in hospital. Yet living in a more deprived area means you’re significantly more likely to die in hospital, less likely to die in a hospice, and less likely to die at home. Joanna Davies is investigating why this happens, and how it might be changed to better fulfil people’s wishes.