Living alone with dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Living alone with dementia: managing without informal support to contact and navigate services
IRAS ID
305473
Contact name
Jenni Brooks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Hallam University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
This project is about understanding the needs of people with dementia who live on their own and do not have someone to help them access services or act as a point of contact.
Lots of people with dementia live alone. They are more at risk of not having their needs met and of going into hospital or a care home. When a person with dementia lives alone and also does not have someone to act as a point of contact or help them to access services, they may also miss important appointments or not get the support they need. We currently do not know how this group manages their lives or what support is available for them.
We will identify community and social care services for this group in two English regions. Then we will talk to 30 people with dementia who live alone and do not have someone to help them access services or act as a point of contact. We want to find out how they manage their daily lives, how they access services and what other support they need. We will then look at four English areas in-depth to find out what support is available, what works, and what does not work.
We will involve people with dementia and practitioners throughout. Our project advisory group includes three people with dementia who live alone and do not have someone to help with contact or access with services. We will hold two analysis workshops for people with dementia to help us analyse our findings. At two stakeholder workshops we will share early findings with people with dementia and practitioners. They will be invited to co-develop useful resources. We will develop ‘sharing and learning networks’ so researchers, practitioners, and people with dementia, can learn from each other throughout the project.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0185
Date of REC Opinion
31 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion