Dementia Action Week in May 2021 seemed the most appropriate time to showcase the valuable work done in this critical health area by ARC NWC. The following content was disseminated across various platforms.

Podcasts / Blogs

Dr Clarissa Giebel, Research Fellow of ARC NWC’s HaCAL theme, hosted a podcast for Dementia Researcher on COVID-19 Care Home research and impact of the pandemic on those living with dementia.

Care home visits during the pandemic – a look into the past and a view into the future
By Dr Clarissa Giebel (ARC NWC) and Dr Emma Vardy (Salford Royal NHS FoundationTtrust) (blog)

Videos added to the ARC NWC YouTube channel included:

Stan, who is living with the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease and has witnessed first-hand the devastating impact the cessation of services has had on people in the dementia community and their carers, gives his view. .

Julie cares for her husband Phil, who is living with Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia and Parkinson’s disease. In this video, Julie outlines how Covid has affected them over the past year.

Paul is an ARC NWC public adviser, and gives his perspective on the impact of Covid-19 care home restrictions on residents and their families:

“I set up a crisis line and home help service” Rosie is the Founder of the Me2U Centre, a day centre for people living with dementia. In this video, Rosie reflects on how Covid-19 has impacted the service she offers.

Publications

This paper was the first study to report on the impact of COVID-19 on paid home care changes in dementia. Findings raise implications for providing better Personal Protective Equipment for paid carers, and to support unpaid carers better in their roles:
https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-020-01719-0

In this qualitative study, the Impact of COVID-19 related social support service closures on people with dementia and unpaid carers is examined:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2020.1822292?scroll=top&needAccess=true

This UK survey of COVID‐19 related social support closures highlights and the impact on older people, people with dementia, and carers:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.5434

This paper explores how social support service use by older adults, carers and People Living With Dementia, and their mental well-being changed over the first three months since the pandemic outbreak:
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/1/e045889

This paper captures the mental health impact of Public Health measures on People Living With Dementia and Carers:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891988721996816

“It’s a groundhog day – every single day she does not understand why she can’t go out for a walk”: This paper warns of the potential dangers of not understanding COVID-19 public health restrictions in dementia: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10815-8

This paper highlights exacerbated inequalities in dementia since the pandemic, identifying five themes: (1) Service issues; (2) Access issues; (3) Relying on own initiative; (4) New inequalities due to COVID-19; and (5) Missing out on the benefits of support services:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12939-021-01418-1

This paper outlines how some people had to enter a care home faster during the pandemic, likely due to lack of support and stimulation:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13607863.2021.1914545