DECISION 2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in prison (DECISION) care pathway and training package: A Realist Informed Feasibility Study
IRAS ID
342451
Contact name
Katrina Forysth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, days
Research summary
Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Prison
Background
• Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) affects how people remember and think.
• Dementia and MCI can stop people from doing everyday activities easily.
• MCI comes and goes, but still affects people’s lives.
• Once someone has Dementia, it does not go away.
• Over 1000 people living in prison in England and Wales have dementia/MCI.
• Many people living in prison are afraid to speak up and often don’t get the same help as everyone else.
• We want to make sure people in prison living with Dementia/MCI get the right help.
• People with dementia/MCI helped us to design a service to support people within prison called DECISION.
What does DECISION do?
• Trains staff in prison to help people with dementia/MCI
• Raises awareness about dementia/MCI.
• Supports staff to provide the best care.
• A staff member makes sure people with dementia/MCI are getting the right care.
• Makes sure everybody gets the same assessment and is followed-up afterwards.
• Makes sure referrals are made to the right teams.
What do we want to know?
1. Whether and how DECISION can work in prison.
2. How we should find out whether DECISION improves the lives of people with dementia/MCI
What will we do?
Work Package 1
We will use these methods to see how well DECISION works and why:
1. Interviews with staff and individuals with dementia/MCI
2. Questionnaires with people who complete the training
3. Observations of individuals with dementia/MCI
4. Use the information we collect to tweak DECISION
Work Package 2
1. Ask 40 individuals who receive DECISION to answer questions about how well their needs are met
2. Interviews with individuals about how they found answering the questions
3. Looking at the costs of DECISION
Work package 3
1. Hold a workshop with staff and experts by experience
2. Write the plan for a larger study
How will we involve people?
• A member of the team is living with memory problems and has lived in prison.
• We have talked, and will keep talking, with people who live in prison with dementia/MCI.
How will we tell people about this research?
We will work with people who live with dementia to produce:
1. Scientific papers
2. Presentations at conferences
3. An article for a prison newspaperREC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
24/WA/0323
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion