Tag Archives: dementia

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CaHRU attends regional SAPC meeting at Nottingham University

JolienposterMembers of the CaHRU team, Jolien Vos, Fiona Togher, Despina Laparidou, Viet-Hai Phung, Ana Godoy, Dr Coral Sirdifield, Dr Zahid Asghar and Prof Niro Siriwardena, recently attended the Spring Trent Regional Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) meeting at the University of Nottingham on 17 March 2015 representing the University of Lincoln. It promised to be an exciting day with CaHRU members giving three oral presentations and four posters.

Coral&AnaposterAn opening keynote by Professor Alan Ford from the University of Nottingham gave an overview of the challenges we face to innovate in teaching and learning. His talk was followed by a series of interesting parallels or the chance to attend a workshop. Parallel session captured research surrounding medical education as well as topics regarding care pathways, responsiveness in primary care and the development of a quality control framework for mobile app based health behaviour change interventions.

Fiona&NiroposterJust before lunch, time was allocated to poster viewing. Despina Laparidou presented a poster on the CADS:E3 study of dementia carers. Fiona Togher presented result from her doctoral work on the development of a prehospital Patient Reported Experience Measure. Ana Godoy and Coral Sirdifield displayed a poster on their analysis of the Quality and Costs of Primary Care (QUALICOPC) study in England, in particular on what patient’s value and what they experience in general practice. Jolien Vos presented the scoping review of her doctoral study on care navigation by older people with multimorbidity in a poster.

DespinaposterThe afternoon began with a keynote from Professor Chris Salisbury from Bristol University, focussing on the redesign of primary health care in the context of multimorbidity. Another series of parallels took place which featured research taking place within CaHRU. Ana Godoy presented a case-control study investigating the association of bisphosphonates and stroke, Coral Sirdifield presented a further analysis of QUALICOPC and Jolien Vos presented a qualitative study of telecare for patients with multimorbidity ongoing research.

The day came to an end with the announcement of the winners of the early career prizes and the CaHRU team looking back on a successful conference.

By Jolien Vos

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Carers of dementia sufferers: Empowerment and Efficacy via Education (CADS: E3)

BA team from CaHRU, led by Dr Jo Middlemass has come together with researchers from the Schools of Education (Prof Terence Karran), Psychology (Dr John Hudson) and Social Science (Despina Laparidou, Prof Niro Siriwardena, Dr Karen Windle, Dr Paul Mansfield) to conduct a study investigating quality of life and outcomes for informal caregivers of people with dementia. Dementia – which includes conditions such as Alzheimer’s – is a progressive degenerative neurological disease with no known cure. There are approximately 800,000 UK patients currently, and it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more than 100 million people suffering from the disease worldwide.

BThis study, funded by the University of Lincoln Research Investment Fund, aims to improve carer and patient outcomes by developing a psychoeducational intervention for carers of people with dementia, with an emphasis on carers undertaking a more formal monitoring role. The study, which started in August 2014, has a mixed-methods design, involving a systematic literature review and a qualitative study, including both focus groups and interviews, with caregivers of people with dementia and with health care professionals.

The anticipated end of the study is July 2015 and future plans include conducting a feasibility study and thereafter a full clinical trial to test the proposed intervention and its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness on a larger scale.

Despina Laparidou

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Despina Laparidou joins the CaHRU team and CADS:E3 study

DespinaDespina Laparidou joined the Community and Health Research Unit this August 2014 as a research assistant.

After finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Lincoln, Despina completed an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Kent and an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology at the University of Surrey. Her last research project prior to joining CaHRU was an exploratory study investigating the extent to which intrusive thinking, intrusion appraisals and illness perceptions affect the psychological adjustment and well-being of cancer patients, as measured through their anxiety and depression levels.

BDespina is currently working with Dr. Jo Middlemass, Prof Terence Karran and a multidisciplinary research team on the “Carers of Dementia Sufferers: Empowerment and Efficacy via Education (CADS: E3)” project, which aims to improve carer and patient outcomes through a psychoeducational intervention for carers of people with dementia.