Dementia sufferers will benefit from university (From Worcester News)

Dementia sufferers will benefit from university

9:04am Tuesday 9th June 2009 in

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A NEW association will be established by the University of Worcester to improve the care and support of people living with dementia.

The University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies will work with people with dementia and their families, professionals, care providers, commissioners and government agencies to provide high quality training and education.

It will be made up a core group of expert practitioners, educationalists and researchers employed by the University of Worcester and headed up by the university’s newly appointed professor of dementia studies, Dawn Brooker.

Professor Brooker said: “My vision for the Association for Dementia Studies is that it will work in union with care providers, commissioners, national charities and government agencies in the field of health and social care to improve the lives of those living with dementia.”

The association is being developed in the wake of the National Dementia Strategy, launched by the department of health.

“The association could provide training to direct care staff and professional development to those in leadership positions to ensure the local authority, primary care trust, mental health partnership trust and the acute trust are at the forefront of the National Dementia Strategy.”

Professor Brooker has secured a £65,000 department of health/Comic Relief grant, which she will bring with her to the University of Worcester to develop a tool to monitor the treatment of those with dementia in care homes.