USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE DEMENTIA CARE

Michelle is a recipient of an Individual Research Career Development Award from the NIHR School for Social Care Research, given to individuals committed to developing the evidence base to improve adult social care practice in England. We caught up with her to see how the award is helping to shape her research and the future of dementia care.

Dementia Research

INTERVIEWEE:

MICHELLE HEWARD –Post Doctoral Research Fellow & Service User and Carer Involvement Lead at the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC), Bournemouth University

My role at Bournemouth University is varied. I manage several ageing and dementia research projects, support patient and public involvement and contribute to teaching. My research is about improving the care and support of older people and people with dementia. I have been interested in digital technology since my Doctoral study which focused on technology, mobility and independence in later life. Recently I’ve been working on several research projects looking at innovative approaches to dementia education. I have been working with

Health Education England (HEE) to develop the Dementia Education and Learning Through Simulation

2 programme. We have used a simulation approach to place staff in acute care settings into the shoes of a person with dementia and now have a toolkit for trainers delivering dementia training, free to download from the HEE website. We feel that this approach will enable staff to make positive changes to how they care and support people with dementia and are evaluating whether the training is making a difference in practice.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we developed the e-DEALTS2 toolkit which can be used by trainers to support the delivery of online dementia training through platforms such as Teams or Zoom. Taking this forward, we are exploring how these toolkits might be used in social care settings and would be delighted to hear from anyone that might be interested in doing so.

Career Development Award

In my work and personal life, I have discovered that communication with people who have dementia can become increasingly difficult as the condition progresses. Many relatives of people with dementia that I have spoken to say that they find it hard to know what to say to the person with dementia – they feel they lose the connection they once had.

Care staff have suggested that they find it equally as complex to get to know residents with dementia, particularly once verbal communication becomes more tricky. With the NIHR award funding, I want to explore if digital innovation and technologies could improve engagement between people with dementia living in care homes, their relatives, and the care staff. I’m particularly interested in memories and reminiscence and exploring the potential of virtual reality. I want to reflect on the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have some questions that I would like to understand more about. Why did care homes use technology at this time? Was technology use continued after the pandemic? What were the barriers faced by those who did not use technology? What difference did it make to residents to have access to digital technology to maintain contact with relatives?

There’s a real drive with this project to gain contacts, I’m looking to develop a network to understand

“With the NIHR award funding, I want to explore if digital innovation and technologies could improve engagement between people with dementia living in care homes, their relatives, and the care staff.” the research gaps, exchange ideas and co-produce a list of priority areas of focus. Specifically, people with lived experience design backgrounds, care home staff and researchers already working in this area, but I would love to hear from anyone interested in this topic. I am aiming to produce several outputs that contribute to the social work evidence base, including journal articles and an application for further funding to take forward the digital reminiscence research.

At this stage my project is based in care homes, but there may be scope to broaden the remit to include home care and domiciliary care staff in the future too.

This is the second time I’ve applied for the Career Development Award. First time round, I was unsuccessful but I used the feedback from the panel to work on my application and make it stronger. I applied again and was awarded 12 months of funding, which began on the 1st November 2022 and funds me for two days a week.

The Value Of Social Care Research

Dementia is a condition that affects people differently and for the person with dementia and their families, this experience can be very lonely and isolating. A lot of the things that help might help one day and not the next. Care staff can often feel overwhelmed and may not know how to approach situations. There is value in toolkits and interventions that can be applied appropriately, but we must undertake research to ensure we understand how and why they make a difference.

My research draws on co-production methods to ensure continual involvement of key stakeholders, including experts-byexperience. I feel that educating staff and relatives can improve the care they provide, and that evaluating toolkits and interventions can make a real difference in shaping a positive care culture. Ultimately, I am passionate about improving adult social care and I want my research to make a difference in practice.

I do feel that there is still a lot of stigma around dementia and gaps in the social care research evidence base, so there’s a lot of potential opportunities for collaboration. I hope that people will start to see the importance of social care research. The inclusion of social care in the NIHR title and the development of the NIHR School for Social Care Research are huge steps forwards.

Please do email me if you wish to discuss anything raised in this article: mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk

For current publications please view my staff profile pages: https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/mheward

For updates on the ADRC: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/ageingdementia-research-centre

For updates on DEALTS2: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes /ageing-dementia-research-centre/innovative-education