Living Well with Dementia Groups in Primary Care (IAPT)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A feasibility study of translating “Living Well with Dementia“ groups into Primary care through the LIFT IAPT service
IRAS ID
133510
Contact name
Richard Iain Lloyd Cheston
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Research summary
A pilot study, funded by the Department of Health, called the LIVDEM study, is comparing changes in quality of life for participants with early diagnosis dementia who attend a “Living Well with Dementia“ support group compared to people who are on a waiting-list to attend. Although we haven’t yet been able to analyse our results, the early signs are that people enjoy attending the groups, and find them helpful.
However, one problem has become clear: these groups have been run by nurses who work for memory clinics, yet because of the increasing demand for memory clinics to reduce the time that people wait to have an assessment, it is now much harder for the clinics to support people once they have a diagnosis. Increasingly, people with dementia and their families are turning to primary care for support.
This study involves training Psychologists working within the LIFT primary care service to provide the LIVDEM groups. We will then support the Psychologists to set up two groups, each of which will last for 10 weeks, and provide opportunities for people with dementia and their families to meet others in a similar position.
This is a feasibility study – we are not looking to see whether the groups are effective or not (the main LIVDEM study will address this), but whether it is possible to run the groups in a primary Care setting, to recruit participants for them and to carry out a research study in the future.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SC/0440
Date of REC Opinion
10 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion