Living With Dementia: BU Public Event Reveals Greater Understanding
18 April 2008
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‘Imagine This - Living with Dementia’ was held at the Lighthouse in Poole on 12th March. |
HSC researchers investigating the experience of carers looking after loved ones with Alzheimer’s hosted a public event in March to discuss their findings with the community.
‘Imagine This - Living with Dementia’, held at Lighthouse, Poole, was organised by Professor Les Todres and Professor Kathleen Galvin, from BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research, as part of The Festival of Social Science, a national week long event. They were joined by Marilyn Cash, Oma Morey, Fiona Cowdell and Andy Pulman, who presented relevant work in their fields. Over 70 people attended to find out more about coping with the disease and to share their views and experiences.
The team of researchers presented the outcomes of several qualitative research studies that focused on the challenges of living with dementia from three points of view: the person with dementia, family carers and professionals. Themes from the research findings included: Learning to live with a partner’s memory loss; The transition to living apart and Looking back at the caring experience. Film clips that were based on research demonstrated themes about what the experience is like from the point of view of the person with dementia. The presentation concluded with further information about web based resources that may be helpful to members of the public.
After refreshments participants had an opportunity to discuss the presentations in small groups.
Professor Galvin says “Those who attended and participated in our event demonstrated how dementia and Alzheimers’ disease impacts many people’s lives in a number of ways. The richness of their experiences can further enhance understanding and can provide important evidence to policy”.
Professor Todres adds “Case studies bring to life the fact that Alzheimer’s sufferers are a set of unique individuals. Our findings reveal a rich, empathic understanding of the experience, which sometimes gets lost in larger scale statistical studies. Our research asks how we look after people - as people - with the illness, and reflects the carer’s coping strategies. A loved one after all is in a very special position of being able to represent an increased awareness of the challenges involved.
We can reveal stories which are incredibly powerful and can allow us to influence the future of health and social care support networks by bringing to their attention the importance of humanising, rather than categorising people with this condition”.
Centre for Qualitative Research
Economic and Social Research Council
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