A specialist dementia researcher from the University of Liverpool has joined a new policy unit to improve dementia prevention, diagnosis and care.
£3m has been granted by The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to produce research on prevention, diagnosis and treatment, care service, and workforce needs.
Dr Clarissa Giebel, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Population Health, joins the NIHR Dementia and Neurodegeneration Policy Research Unit (DeNPRU), led by academics from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the University of Plymouth.
Dr Giebel will oversee a novel approach to public involvement as part of the unit. Her work will see her recruiting three people living with dementia and/or unpaid carers as public adviser researchers, ensuring their voices are heard and featured in shaping all aspects and outputs from the newly formed unit.
Dr Clarissa Giebel said: "This Policy Research Unit is an important expansion of the work of the Liverpool Dementia Research group and will create national linkage between research and policy with Liverpool raising the profile of inequalities aspects in dementia diagnosis and care."
Over 900,000 people in the UK are living with dementia. Without major change in availability of preventive strategies, this number is expected to double within 25 years. The costs of dementia in the UK, currently mostly attributable to social care, will also increase - from £23 billion in 2015 to an estimated £80.1 billion in 2040.
The new unit will work with policymakers to produce research to answer four key questions on dementia and neurodegenerative disease:
- How policy can help prevent these diseases by addressing risk factors.
- How to improve people's experience of a diagnosis and ensure good quality ongoing care for everyone.
- How technology and the way services are provided can support everyone with these diseases to receive care designed to meet individual needs.
- How to build a workforce with the right skills and positive attitudes towards people with these diseases.
For each question the team will address how to deliver fairer, inclusive services to reduce inequalities, how social care can support people to live the lives they want to lead beyond medical care, how to conduct research serving all communities, including involving those with lived experience, and how to provide the best value for patients and society.
The DeNPRU team includes collaborating researchers from University College London, Exeter, Newcastle, Plymouth, and York Universities, as well as Dementia UK, Neurological Alliance, and Alzheimer's Society. This group draws on broad experience in deprived inner city and coastal areas in NE, NW, SW England and East London.
Co-Director Claudia Cooper, Professor of Psychological Medicine at QMUL said: "I am excited that QMUL is co-leading with University of Plymouth this national partnership across academic, clinical and lived experience organisations, with its ambitious commitment to drive up the quality of prevention, treatment and care services across dementia and neurodegenerative diseases. We will work with DHSC to build the evidence base policymakers need to drive more integrated, equitable, user-focused services. We will look especially at how services can be developed so that groups they currently serve less well can benefit equitably from scientific advances."
Co-Director Sube Banerjee, Professor of Dementia at University of Plymouth said: "It is brilliant that the Department of Health and Social Care has commissioned our Policy Research Unit to help it develop and deliver the better care for people with dementia other neurodegenerative disorders that is so desperately needed. It is a privilege to co-lead, with Claudia and QMUL, our national network of researchers and clinicians, but above all people with lived experience of these illnesses. Together we can help make policy and services that can transform patient experience, delivering better treatment and support and improving outcomes for all."
