PhD Studentship in the Faculty of Medical Sciences – Alzheimer’s Society PhD Studentship: Involving people with dementia and their families in intervention design

Number of awards:

1

Start date and duration:

1 September.2018 for 3 years.

Overview:

We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with an interest in dementia or ageing research and primary care for this three-year full-time PhD Studentship, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society. The post is based in the Institute of Health & Society at Newcastle University. The PhD student will join a national multi-disciplinary team experienced in systematic reviews, behaviour change, qualitative studies, clinical trials, and engagement with people with dementia and their carers.

The successful candidate will develop a PhD project, linked to the PriDem programme which aims to develop and evaluate acceptable, feasible and sustainable model(s) of evidence based, person-centred, primary care-led post diagnostic dementia care to improve quality of life for people with dementia and their families.

Post diagnostic-dementia care, defined in the 2016 World Alzheimer Report as ‘holistic, integrated continuing care in the context of declining function and increasing needs of family carers’, varies considerably in England, with ~50% people with dementia inadequately supported. We aim to address this via a ‘task-shifted and task-shared’ primary care-led model of post diagnostic dementia care. Such an approach, with more appropriate secondary care use, is potentially more sustainable in view of the rising needs of an ageing population.

The studentship provides an excellent opportunity for a researcher who has an interest in qualitative methodology and in developing a career in research in dementia and primary care.

The proposed studentship will be focused on how best to engage people with dementia and their families in research and service design. Post diagnostic dementia care varies considerably in quality in the UK. Involving people with dementia and their families in service development would help but the merits of different methodological approaches to such engagement require further study. We are keen to undertake an embedded ethnographic study of the PRIDEM programme intervention development process with the PhD student acting as non-participant observer. Observation will focus on understanding the processes through which evidence is presented, evaluated and used to inform the content and delivery of the model(s) of post diagnostic support which will then be tested in feasibility studies.

Sponsor:

Newcastle University (https://bit.ly/2uvS3uT) and NTW Mental Health Trust.

Name of supervisor(s):

Professor Louise Robinson (https://bit.ly/2Gjy0Bp), Institute for Ageing (https://bit.ly/2GVK3Ww) and Professor Joy Adamson (https://bit.ly/2uvltt3), Institute of Health and Society (https://bit.ly/2pQ0dJ8).

Eligibility Criteria:

You must have, or expect to achieve a 2:1 in social sciences, psychology or health related field.

The award is available to UK/EU applicants only.

IELTS 6.5 overall (with a minimum of 5.5 in all other sub-skills).

How to apply:

You must apply through the University’s online postgraduate application system. To do this please ‘Create a new account’ (https://bit.ly/2urEI6Z).

Only mandatory fields need to be completed. However, you will need to include the following information:
•insert the programme code 8300F in the programme of study section
•select ‘PhD in the Faculty of Medical Sciences – Ageing’ as the programme of study
•insert the studentship code HS032 in the studentship/partnership reference field.
•attach a covering letter and CV. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote the studentship reference code HS032 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project
•attach degree transcripts and certificates and, if English is not your first language, a copy of your English language qualifications.

* The online application system will only allow one application using the programme code 8300F. If you are applying for TWO or more projects using that code then you will need to email our Postgraduate Admissions Service ([Email Address Removed]) with the following information:

•your application number (from the first project application that you submitted online)
•the second studentship code and its corresponding title
•a two page covering letter for the second project

Our Postgraduate Admissions Service will then forward this information to the relevant selector in the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Contact:

Please email Angela Mattison, Senior Research Administrator for the PriDem project.