Skills Development Workshop

Day 1: Thursday, 12 September

Understanding and appropriately engaging with people living with dementia is the future of community, health and social care research. The number of older people living with dementia in the UK is set to near 1.5 million by 2040, more than doubling since 2015. The impacts of this on society and the economy will be enormous, with costs of healthcare, social care and informal care provided by family and friends set to rise by more than 200%, (Wittenberg et al, 2020). Therefore, researchers and research methodology must be equipped to respond to this demographic change if they are to adequately address society's challenges over the coming decades. Most importantly, directly accessing the voices of people previously excluded from research due to their cognitive impairment and societal stigma is vital to create a more equitable and inclusive approach to research. This interactive workshop will enable participants to explore the challenges and solutions to involving people living with dementia as research participants and co-producers. It will provide insight into the ways in which different qualitative methods (including creative methods) can be used and adapted to involve people living with dementia at all stages of the condition, including those who lack capacity to provide informed consent or have no verbal communication abilities. The workshop will share examples from a decade of dementia care research demonstrating the ways in which people living with dementia can be ethically involved, empowered and heard through the research process.