Melissa March, our CEO, was delighted to be invited to attend the Leicester Academy for the Study of Ageing (LASA) exciting event, “Enhancing Wellbeing, Transforming Lives Together” on 11th July at King Power Stadium.
However, we were all surprised and amazed when she returned with an oversized cheque for £2,500 and the exciting opportunity to work with other to pilot a brand new idea called Better Visits!
The day brought together a range of people with an interest in transforming the lives of older people: researchers, clinicians, older people and their carers, and companies and organisations who provide services to this group. Delegates worked together in interdisciplinary teams to develop ideas for new research to improve the health and wellbeing of older people. These ideas were judged by an expert panel, and at the end of the day the successful proposals were awarded seed-corn funding to begin this research.
Better Visits aims to improve the experience that relatives have when going to a care setting to see their loved ones with dementia. The plan is to pilot creating and using a resource in one care setting based on what existing visitors tell us what challenges they face when visiting and what could potentially enhance this for them.
We are delighted to be able to undertake this action research and for all the support we received in turning the original idea into a proposal that won funding. We are also very grateful to Prime Life for sponsoring the prize and we look forward to working in one of their local care homes to trial it all out.