The Ageing Scientist

S7E2 Cultural Diversity in Dementia Care

In this episode, I am joined by Prof Bianca Brijnath and Dr Jo Antoniades from the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) in Melbourne, Australia. We talk about their work into improving dementia care for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds, raising awareness and reducing stigma, and one of their key projects - Moving Pictures.

 

You can follow Bianca's and Jo's work on social media:

@BiancaBrijnath

@JoAntoniades

S7E1 Dementia care in the land down under

In this brand new season, I have invited some research and lived experts from my recent travels through Australia to talk about dementia care in Australia. In Episode 1, I am chatting with three brilliant researchers - Darshini Ayton (Monash University, Melbourne), Katya Numbers (University of New South Wales, Sydney), and Kasia Lion (Griffith University, Brisbane) about what dementia care is like in Australia. 

To find out more, have a listen!

S6E3 Featuring dementia on TV and in reports by the Alzheimer’s Society

Speaking to the UK Alzheimer's Society's Senior Policy Officer Kielan Arblaster and Senior Media Manager Eleanor Green, we discuss how the Society comes up with its public reports, including "Left to Cope Alone", and its media strategies. The Society acts as an important gateway between research and the public, but also between research, people with lived dementia experiences, and decision makers. Listen out for mention of very active person living with dementia Joy Watson and her legitimate question about what happens now for people with dementia and their carers, and not just in 10 years time.

 

To find out more about Dementia Action Week and the latest Society's TV advert, take a look here.

S6E2 Dementia cartoons with Tony Husband

In this episode, I am talking to Tony Husband, Private Eye cartoonist and former carer for his father with dementia, about his two books of dementia cartoons - "Take care son" and "United", and how one tweet by his friend Stephen Fry resulted in his first book. Tony shares his personal experiences of how he came up with the idea for "Take care son", and what is has been like witnessing his father living with dementia. 

To find out more about Tony's work, and his many other books and cartoons, take a look at his webpage and follow him on twitter (@tonyhusband1).

S6E1 Dementia in the Literature

Season 6 is looking at how Dementia is captured in the media. There are many forms of media, but this episode is focusing specifically on how dementia is portrayed in books. I've been chatting to Prof Cindy Weinstein from CalTech in the US and former carer Jeff Seneviratne from Manchester (UK) about Cindy's book "Finding the Right Words" and their experiences of how dementia is discussed in the media, both in the US and the UK.

Both Cindy (@cindyaweinstein) and Jeff (@jeffseneviratne) are also active on twitter.

After the podcast recording ended, Jeff shared with us a beautiful poem his sister wrote for his late wife Teresa:

 

For Teresa

Because I can't be at her funeral, I make an altar

in my living room: an oak table with indigo shawl,

a lit candle on a birch holder with a heart in its bark.

I gather camellias - the petals fall, the way she fell

quietly away after all the sorrow of the incremental

losing of her, all the living with her present absence.

I send my love out to their broken heartache, a circle

of held hands around the space she has left.

 

Seni Seneviratne

S5E5 Big data on care homes

How can we test whether different types of care work or not? With data. the social care sector in the UK has been lacking coherent, linked up data even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 highlighted how much we are missing big data on care homes. Other countries have systems in place, so what we can we learn from them? 

In this episode, I am joined by Prof Adam Gordon from the University of Nottingham. Adam is Professor of the Care of Older People, and has been leading research in care homes for over a decade now, mainly looking at models of healthcare and how to prevent avoidable harm in care homes.   

S5E4 The value of family carers

Family carers remain an important part in the live of someone living in a care home. Often, the importance of family carers, and their consideration as individuals who have rights and need to be supported can be overlooked though.

In this episode, I am joined by two active members from Rights for Residents (@rightsforresid2), Diane and Kate, and Dr Alys Griffiths from the University of Liverpool, discussing the value of family carers, from pandemic to beyond.

S5E3 Green Care Farms

In this episode, I am chatting to Katharina Rosteius, PhD student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and Maud Coolen, Green Care Farm owner. Green Care Farms a re a specific type of long-term care growing in popularity in the Netherlands. Maud runs such a care setting with her family, De Port Green Care Farm, and shares her experiences of how residents seem to have a better quality of life and live longer than in usual long-term care settings. 

To follow updates about De Port Green Care Farm, follow Maud on instagram: ma.o.uderenzorg

S5E2 Innovative Long-Term Care

With Season 5 focusing on different aspects of care homes, in this episode I am chatting with three Dutch long-term care researchers from Maastricht University about innovative long-term care. What is innovative care? What can we learn from other countries and settings? Prof Hilde Verbeek, Dr Bram de Boer, and PhD student Mara Bouwens are sharing their experiences, and how innovative care homes have adapted differently during the pandemic.

S5E1 Human rights in care homes

In this fifth season, I am focusing on different aspects of care homes. Starting off Season 5, I am joined by Dr Caroline Green from King's College London and Prof Debby Gerritsen from Radboud University in the Netherlands in Episode 1, where we discuss human rights in care homes.

Human rights have been badly affected during the pandemic, but there are wider issues surrounding the human rights of care home residents, and their families, which we need to put a spotlight on.