Since qualifying as a registered nurse in 1990 I have worked with people with dementia across health and social care settings in both clinical and educational roles. Prior to returning to the social care sector, I spent five years working at the School of Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. In addition to teaching responsibilities, I was involved in research studies evaluating the impact of dementia training programmes on staff working in acute hospital settings.

• PhD Title: Exploring the experience of family members during the transition of a relative with dementia to a care home
• Supervisors: Professor Claire Surr and Dr Rachael Kelley

Tell us a bit about yourself and your path to your dementia research

I began my caring career as a teenager in the local nursing home in the village in the Yorkshire Dales where I grew up, going on to qualify as a registered nurse, always with the intention of returning to the care home sector. During this time my grandad also developed dementia, and although it’s 27 years since he passed away, I have never forgotten the devastating effect that dementia had on our family. Although I don’t think I ever had a formal plan, the experience of my family has largely shaped and guided my career for over 30 years in a variety of roles in the field of dementia care across health and social care, and in higher education. I believed that my academic learning was complete after studying both a BSc and an MSc in dementia studies over a decade ago. However, a need to understand more about how we can support families who are caring for a relative with dementia, particularly during the transition to a care home, led me to finally admit that a PhD was the next natural step for me.

Why did you choose Leeds Beckett?

When I decided that the time was right for me to consider PhD study, I knew that finding the right supervisors would be key to my success, particularly as I would be balancing part-time study with a demanding full-time role which involves national travel.

My dementia research interests are focused around the quality of life for people with dementia and their families. With this in mind it was essential for me to find a university with a dementia research department with the same commitment to make a difference to the lives and experience of care of people with dementia and their families.

Having previously worked with Professor Claire Surr on a number of projects, the Centre for Dementia Research at Leeds Beckett was an obvious choice for me.

What is your research about and what makes you passionate about it?

Although care for people with dementia has improved significantly over the last few years, family members caring for a relative with dementia at home still don’t always receive the help that they need. When a decision has been made that a person with dementia can no longer safely remain at home, families are tasked with finding a suitable care home, often at short notice and frequently in the midst of a period of additional stress, for example due to further deterioration in their relative’s health, or due to a health crisis involving a member of the family. With support particularly lacking during this time, there is little wonder that families frequently report this being a period of immense additional emotional strain.

Before we can understand the type of interventions that care homes could put in place to support individual family members during this period, we must first understand much more about how different family members experience this time of transition. This includes both understanding the type of support that individuals within a family unit believe would be of most benefit to them, as well as understanding whether family members’ support needs change at different times during this trajectory.

How have you applied what you’ve learned from your work at the School of Health?

As the Head of Dementia Care for a large care home organisation, I am very fortunate to be in a role that gives me the opportunity to influence the quality of care that residents with dementia and their families receive. Since beginning my PhD research studies almost two years ago, I have been able to further draw on contemporary evidence to support policy and practice development in my organisation to ensure that our staff have access to the most up-to-date information and resources available, particularly when supporting families when their relative with dementia moves into one of our homes.

I have also found that my confidence for engaging outside of my organisation has developed further and I am regularly facilitating dementia-specific webinars for family carers and volunteer groups across the UK.

How would you reflect on your time as a postgraduate researcher at Leeds Beckett?

Despite some initial doubts, thanks to exceptional support from my supervisors, returning to academic learning has been surprisingly enjoyable, and I am looking forward to the remainder of my research studies.

Although the constraints of the past 16 months have had a significant impact on ‘normal’ university life, the Centre for Dementia Research has maintained opportunities for contact for research students via live, online video-streaming platforms. This has provided a fantastic opportunity to meet and get to know fellow research students and research colleagues – something that has been invaluable during lockdown. Under usual circumstances where face-to-face meetings were the norm, balancing part-time study with full-time work didn’t always allow attendance at meetings or events on campus, so this has been a quite unexpected positive outcome.