
Brain health, dementia and delirium
We recognise that supporting those with lived experience of dementia, and reducing incidence rates for people who may be at risk of developing dementia, requires an interdisciplinary collaborative approach.
Our researchers work across disciplines, sectors, and populations, striving to ensure our work is inclusive and impactful.
Our network’s partners include the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board’s programme for dementia, Dementia United, as well as the Alzheimer’s Society, the NIHR-ARC and DEM-COMM Programme, and our newly formed community advisory group, the Dementia Research Action Group: Our Network (DRAGON).
Our team use a range of approaches and methodologies to research aspects of dementia care, support and prevention, including digital technologies, a range of creative methodologies, and participatory and mixed methods approaches.
Our goals include fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, addressing community needs and encouraging public participation in research advocacy.
Our objectives
- Improve patient safety through innovative solutions, including delirium detection digital interventions to promote wellbeing and health management.
- Develop a better understanding of the spectrum of modifiable factors that impact brain health, risk reduction including delirium prevention, and the ability to live well with dementia. This includes how diverse communities view, understand and interact with these risk factors, and how this impacts inequality in brain health and wellbeing as individuals and communities age.
- Embed co-design approaches across all our work, developing meaningful interventions and measures of success grounded in outcomes relevant to those with lived experience of dementia.
Current projects
Some of our projects relating to physical activity and exercise are funded through and conducted via the NIHR Greater Manchester Applied Research Collaboration Healthy Ageing Theme.
- Keep On Keep Up (KOKU)-LITE (Jaheeda Gangannagaripalli) – Digital technologies for falls prevention and to improve wellbeing for people living with dementia.
- Everyday aesthetics and the intersection of arts and health (Sarah Fox) – Involves the use of a participatory approach to develop, deliver and evaluate a tailored, multi-arts social intervention with people with dementia living at home.
- Deconditioning in hospitalised patients with dementia (Emma Elliott) – A systematic review to examine evidence of physical activity interventions for hospitalised patients with dementia. View the protocol registered on PROSPERO.
- Assessing the effects of physical activity interventions on the maintenance of cognitive function in midlife to reduce the risk of cognitive decline (Sarah Smith) – The results of this systematic review will be explored with Public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) representatives and relevant stakeholders. Assessment of the need for a feasibility study will then follow. View the protocol on PROSPERO.
- The association between delirium and falls in older adults in the community: a systematic review (Prof Emma Vardy)
- Qualitative study completed and in submission for publication, in collaboration with Integrated Care Board partners Dementia United: A study of the acceptability of a community delirium toolkit to healthcare staff (Prof Emma Vardy)
- Collaborations with teams at the University of Edinburgh and Manchester Metropolitan University exploring delirium detection in different contexts and exploiting delirium as a risk factor for dementia to aid diagnosis (Prof Emma Vardy)
- Greater Manchester Dementia Research Action Group: Our Network (DRAGON) – Established with Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board and Dementia United to be a voice for those with lived experience of dementia, to shape the direction of dementia research.
- Organisations of Hope
- Mental capacity and personal finances – a qualitative study exploring what happens when older adults experience difficulties in managing their money because of declining mental capacity.
Resources
View resources relevant to brain health, dementia and delirium.