Network launches animation to mark Dementia Action Week

An animation letting people know how to sign up to research studies to explore potential treatments for a condition that will soon affect more than a million, is being shared by CRN West Midlands to mark Dementia Action Week (13-19 May).

The Join Dementia Research (JDR) site matches volunteers with dementia studies they may be able to take part in - whether they have a diagnosis or not. Researchers can also use it to find participants for their studies.

Jacqueline Smart, JDR Lead for the Network said: “It’s estimated that by 2025 there will be more than one million people in the UK with dementia. We need people to come forward and sign up to trials which will help introduce new treatments, and improve both diagnosis times and care.”

There are currently 56 dementia studies open in the West Midlands, with 5,505 people signed up to JDR. You can read about one of them, the Sonnet Study which involved Robert Harvey House in Birmingham, here.

The study team worked with care homes to understand the best way to measure residents' levels of social connections. They then devised a measure and returned to the care homes to test it. The measure which takes the form of a questionnaire, was tested by having conversations with residents and later gaining a trusted member of staff or family member's perspective on the resident's social connection levels.

Carly Craddock, Chief Operating Officer of the Network, said: “We all know someone with dementia, or a family that has been touched by it. The search for treatments and a possible cure is becoming ever more urgent. We are grateful to everyone who contributes to the research effort into this condition.”