Living Well with Dementia (LivDem)
Bringing patients, partners and families together, so no one has to go through dementia alone.
Author: Professor Richard Cheston, Professor of Dementia Research
Research fellows: Dr Emily Dodd, Senior Research Fellow, Dr Natasha Woodstoke, Research Fellow
While we each have our own specialisms and our different areas of research, we came together through LivDem, which stands for Living Well with Dementia.
Through LivDem, we want to make sure that people can access and take up the services and support that they – and their partners and families – need.
"No one has to go through dementia alone. Through Living Well with Dementia, we’re bringing patients, partners and families together, so that they can all live fuller, happier lives."
Professor Richard Cheston Professor of Dementia Research
Caring and sharing
Rightly, there’s a lot of focus on people getting an early dementia diagnosis. It’s important, so a lot of services are set up around that. But actually, that time after you’re diagnosed can be really scary, upsetting and lonely.
We believe it’s important for people living with dementia to come together and talk. Sharing what it’s like to live with dementia helps people to adjust. By helping people to feel more comfortable having open conversations about this dreadful illness we can challenge the stigma that surrounds it. Our LivDem group intervention offers this.
We have also been developing a new LivDem Families intervention. The aim is to help couples and families to be able to talk together about how the illness is affecting them. This helps them to have the best life that they can, together after a diagnosis.
Reaching everyone affected
As well as the group sessions themselves, we’re interested in how LivDem is delivered. Historically, it’s been delivered within the NHS by NHS professionals. But we’re looking at how it can be adapted so that, for example, it could be run by voluntary or community organisations. We believe that this would improve access. Because we know that there are certain groups of people that are more likely to engage and take up services that are provided by these types of organisations.
We’re also taking LivDem global. We’ve had a lot of interest from overseas, including Italy, Ireland and Japan. It’s quite exciting to be doing something that people seem to get a lot out of. A lot of the feedback is really encouraging.
Opening up the conversation
We’re all very proud that we’re changing real lives through LivDem. We had an email from one of the course facilitators the other day. He was so pleased with how LivDem had facilitated some really good conversation with the people in the room. They were really opening up. He said there was laughter, there were tears. And he finished the email by saying how we’ve created something really special. For the three of us, it really doesn’t get better than that. Knowing that LivDem is making a genuine difference to real lives.
Contribution to the UN 2030 sustainable development goals
UWE Bristol is proud to align our research to the UN sustainable development goals. This research aligns with the following goals:
