Inside Track Focus
scale and size of the issue of dementia, it is time to also put our money where our mouth is.
A miracle solution or scientific breakthrough
is not around the corner given the substantial inequity in research funding compared to other conditions such as cancer, he states. According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, dementia costs the UK economy £23bn per year – twice that of cancer, three times the impact of heart disease and four times that of stroke. And yet funding for dementia research still lags far behind these other conditions. With the number of people affected by dementia forecast to rise rapidly as the population ages, Rebecca Wood, chief executive, Alzheimer’s Research UK, says the need for research “has never been more urgent.” However, our response so far has been
found “lacking”, she says. “A recent poll revealed that people in
Scotland fear dementia more than cancer, and even more than death, yet our response to the growing dementia crisis, which already costs the UK £23bn each year, is lacking. For every scientist working to defeat dementia, six work on cancer. Combined charitable investment in dementia research is 12 times lower than spending on cancer research and over three times lower than heart disease.” Alzheimer’s Research UK’s goal is ultimately
to defeat dementia, and the UK is home to some “brilliant” research talent who are striving to achieve that aim, Wood says., adding: “… Scotland is home to two of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s centres of research excellence – we’re currently supporting projects worth £2.2m at universities across Scotland. However, we still need to know much more about the causes of dementia before we can develop new treatments that could have a real benefit for people. Tat means we must invest in research now.” Tere is also a real enthusiasm in Scotland
among people with dementia and their carers to participate in research that might help them now or others in the future, declares Dr Peter Connelly, co-director of the Scottish Dementia Clinical Research Network (SDCRN). SDCRN was set up with the intention
of spreading a culture of clinical research in dementia across Scotland and has been recruiting volunteers from across the country who are willing to take part in clinical research into dementia. “Te position before the network came into being was that clinical research in dementia in Scotland was very thin on the ground. Tere had been one major academic department in Aberdeen but with the retiral of the professor there that largely disappeared. Tat meant
24 Holyrood 13 June 2011 Dementia Life
Jane and her father are looking at old photographs. In one shot of a high street there is a motorbike parked against a pavement that catches his eye. “It’s an Indian Brave,” he says. “It’s got a fabulous sidecar and it’s what I brought you out of hospital in when you were born. Mum had you on her knee and she had to hold an umbrella over you so that you didn’t get wet on the way home.” Jane, who in addition to being a carer happens to be lead associate at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, field tested Dementia Life – digital reminiscence therapy software that is aimed at the elderly and people with – dementia with her father. The software uses digital media content with the aim of encouraging older people to reminisce and share their memories. Using it with her dad, whose dementia was “slowly destroying his ability to make sense of the world”, led to the revelation of stories from her childhood that Jane says she never knew, and may never have known. While a photograph can spark a conversation and reveal a treasured family memory; music can also have a powerful effect, explains Martin Valentine, director, Dementia Life. “We had one lady join the field test. We played the song ‘Diane’. This lady’s health had deteriorated quite rapidly and she had very little verbal communication at all, she sat with her hands down and her head down. They put on the random music player and the song, ‘Diane’ came on and she started tapping her hand and clapping her feet. The carer said to us, ‘Wow. That might not mean a lot to you but that is a big, big improvement.’ “And then, all of a sudden, she lifted her head up and, no word of a lie it was quite a moving experience, she lifted her head up and she started singing the song virtually word for word. That song obviously meant something to her somewhere in her past.” One of the strengths of the software is its flexibility and how easily it can be adapted to meet requirements, explains Valentine.
that by contrast to basic science research, and even social research to a certain extent, we might have been looking at Scotland becoming a desert for clinical research,” explains Connelly. Te landscape seems more fertile now,
however. Te network, which has been working to promote clinical research in dementia, increase the number of people engaged in high-quality studies and boost research activity within the NHS in Scotland, recruited its thousandth volunteer in March - five months ahead of target. “Tat rather flies in the face of a rather widely held view that people with dementia wouldn’t in themselves want to participate in studies, or that they would be worried about
Dementia Life screen shot
“What the carer said to us was, ‘I didn’t know the words to ‘Diane’ and it would be really nice if I could join in.’ So we’ve added a singalong function.” The software will continue to evolve the more feedback they receive from patients and their carers, he says, adding that they will be launching a new version in October that will also allow individuals to email, Skype and SMS. However, Valentine says he is also excited by the feedback they have been getting from clinicians. When NHS Fife trialled the software across various settings; including old age occupational therapy units, specialist dementia wards and nursing homes in and around the Fife area, it proved a hit with the patients and staff who found it to be an “interesting and engaging diversion”. “Such was the level of interaction with the software, we were able to specifically reduce the need for sedative medication,” said Dr Gareth Thomas, a specialist in old age psychiatry at the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline. “We are always looking to minimise the use of medication and the trial clearly showed that this software can help.” Valentine says positive feedback such as this has piqued the interest of senior NHS figures on both sides of the border, and is hopeful that the dynamic approach to traditional methods of reminiscence will be given further consideration as a cost-effective solution to an industry need.
discussing their symptoms – neither of these things seems to be the case,” says Connelly. Scotland is building a solid platform for
a research base in dementia, but Connelly admits he feels there is “still a long way to go.” “I think from the cynical point of view we
still need to be able convince pharmaceutical companies, for instance, that we have the capability to carry out research in Scotland. We still need to really grow some of our own researchers and encourage the medical staff to take more interest in research, and we need medical and general managers, and chief executives of boards and CHPs, to recognise that investing in time for research is very important.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80