The Ageing Scientist: Recent Episodes
Clarissa Giebel
This podcast discusses everything around ageing and science. What does it mean to age well? What is the latest research? And what affects people with dementia? Each mini-series will explore a different angle, where I will be inviting experts in the field (from scientists to clinicians, from service providers to decision makers, and most importantly, people sharing their own experiences of ageing).
In this episode, I am joined by Prof Bianca Brijnath and Dr Jo Antoniades from the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) in Melbourne, Australia. We talk about their work into improving dementia care for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds, raising awareness and reducing stigma, and one of their key projects - Moving Pictures.
You can follow Bianca's and Jo's work on social media:
@BiancaBrijnath
@JoAntoniades
In this brand new season, I have invited some research and lived experts from my recent travels through Australia to talk about dementia care in Australia. In Episode 1, I am chatting with three brilliant researchers - Darshini Ayton (Monash University, Melbourne), Katya Numbers (University of New South Wales, Sydney), and Kasia Lion (Griffith University, Brisbane) about what dementia care is like in Australia.
To find out more, have a listen!
Speaking to the UK Alzheimer's Society's Senior Policy Officer Kielan Arblaster and Senior Media Manager Eleanor Green, we discuss how the Society comes up with its public reports, including "Left to Cope Alone", and its media strategies. The Society acts as an important gateway between research and the public, but also between research, people with lived dementia experiences, and decision makers. Listen out for mention of very active person living with dementia Joy Watson and her legitimate question about what happens now for people with dementia and their carers, and not just in 10 years time.
To find out more about Dementia Action Week and the latest Society's TV advert, take a look here.
In this episode, I am talking to Tony Husband, Private Eye cartoonist and former carer for his father with dementia, about his two books of dementia cartoons - "Take care son" and "United", and how one tweet by his friend Stephen Fry resulted in his first book. Tony shares his personal experiences of how he came up with the idea for "Take care son", and what is has been like witnessing his father living with dementia.
To find out more about Tony's work, and his many other books and cartoons, take a look at his webpage and follow him on twitter (@tonyhusband1).
Season 6 is looking at how Dementia is captured in the media. There are many forms of media, but this episode is focusing specifically on how dementia is portrayed in books. I've been chatting to Prof Cindy Weinstein from CalTech in the US and former carer Jeff Seneviratne from Manchester (UK) about Cindy's book "Finding the Right Words" and their experiences of how dementia is discussed in the media, both in the US and the UK.
Both Cindy (@cindyaweinstein) and Jeff (@jeffseneviratne) are also active on twitter.
After the podcast recording ended, Jeff shared with us a beautiful poem his sister wrote for his late wife Teresa:
For Teresa
Because I can't be at her funeral, I make an altar
in my living room: an oak table with indigo shawl,
a lit candle on a birch holder with a heart in its bark.
I gather camellias - the petals fall, the way she fell
quietly away after all the sorrow of the incremental
losing of her, all the living with her present absence.
I send my love out to their broken heartache, a circle
of held hands around the space she has left.
Seni Seneviratne
How can we test whether different types of care work or not? With data. the social care sector in the UK has been lacking coherent, linked up data even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 highlighted how much we are missing big data on care homes. Other countries have systems in place, so what we can we learn from them?
In this episode, I am joined by Prof Adam Gordon from the University of Nottingham. Adam is Professor of the Care of Older People, and has been leading research in care homes for over a decade now, mainly looking at models of healthcare and how to prevent avoidable harm in care homes.
In this episode, I am chatting to Katharina Rosteius, PhD student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and Maud Coolen, Green Care Farm owner. Green Care Farms a re a specific type of long-term care growing in popularity in the Netherlands. Maud runs such a care setting with her family, De Port Green Care Farm, and shares her experiences of how residents seem to have a better quality of life and live longer than in usual long-term care settings.
To follow updates about De Port Green Care Farm, follow Maud on instagram: ma.o.uderenzorg
Family carers remain an important part in the live of someone living in a care home. Often, the importance of family carers, and their consideration as individuals who have rights and need to be supported can be overlooked though.
In this episode, I am joined by two active members from Rights for Residents (@rightsforresid2), Diane and Kate, and Dr Alys Griffiths from the University of Liverpool, discussing the value of family carers, from pandemic to beyond.
In this fifth season, I am focusing on different aspects of care homes. Starting off Season 5, I am joined by Dr Caroline Green from King's College London and Prof Debby Gerritsen from Radboud University in the Netherlands in Episode 1, where we discuss human rights in care homes.
Human rights have been badly affected during the pandemic, but there are wider issues surrounding the human rights of care home residents, and their families, which we need to put a spotlight on.
With Season 5 focusing on different aspects of care homes, in this episode I am chatting with three Dutch long-term care researchers from Maastricht University about innovative long-term care. What is innovative care? What can we learn from other countries and settings? Prof Hilde Verbeek, Dr Bram de Boer, and PhD student Mara Bouwens are sharing their experiences, and how innovative care homes have adapted differently during the pandemic.
It's Dementia Action Week 2022 in the UK. This week, there are plenty of activities to raise awareness and spring into action to address dementia. In the next couple of years, there will be an estimated 1 million people living with dementia in the UK, and we've already reached 55 million world wide. And of course, there are hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers supporting their relative or friend with dementia.
In this special #DAW2022 episode, I am talking to the Alzheimer's Society (Malayka Rahman and Hayley Hogan) and Hilary Tetlow, former carer and host of the peer support groups SURF Liverpool, about what DAW means and what we can all do to address dementia.
In this episode, I am joined by Dr Sahdia Parveen from the Centre for Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. Sahdia is a health psychologist, and we are discussing how people from minority ethnic backgrounds experience accessing dementia care, with a particular focus on people from South Asian communities.
Follow Sahdia on twitter: @SahdiaParveen
What is young-onset dementia? What is it like living with dementia at a younger age and caring for a loved one? In this podcast, Chris and Jayne are sharing their personal story about living with dementia and caring, and changing the attitude of how one can live with dementia. Dr Monica Cations is also joining the panel and discussing her insights from how the Australian care sector supports people with young-onset dementia.
Chris Roberts is from Wales. He is living with emphysema and with mixed dementia, Vascular and Alzheimers. He spends a lot of time raising awareness of dementia, its symptoms, promoting better services and support to dispel the stigma that it is associated with together with his wife Jayne Goodrick. He is a Board Member of Alzheimer Europe as well as the Chair of the European Working Group of People With Dementia, and an Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society UK/Cymru.
Monica Cations is a psychologist and epidemiologist who has worked in clinical and research roles with people with young onset dementia and their care partners for over a decade. Monica’s research currently focusses on post-diagnosis service delivery for young people with dementia, aiming to improve access to high quality, person-driven care.
To follow Chris, Jayne, and Monica on twitter, here are their handles: @Chris Roberts, @Jayne Goodrick, @monicacations
In this episode, I am talking to academic-clinician Dr Anna Volkmer, The Lewy Body Society charity, and Dr Riona McArdle. We are discussing what rare dementias are, and what treatments are out there, and why it is so important to better understand what happens in different rarer forms of dementias to provide adequate care plans.
Dr Anna Volkmer is a clinical academic speech and language therapist at UCL. Anna works as a senior speech and language therapist in the Cognitive Disorders Service at the National Hospital for Neurology where she diagnoses and treats people with dementia.
Jacqui Cannon is CEO of The Lewy Body Society and a former carer for her dad who lived with Lewy body dementia.
Dr Ríona Mc Ardle is a NIHR Advanced Fellow at Newcastle University. Her research ambition is to improve how we diagnose and care for people with dementia through novel applications of digital healthcare. She has led the largest study to date to examine patterns of gait in Lewy body disease and Alzheimer's disease using wearable technology in clinical and real-world environments.
Follow this episode's panellists on twitter: @lbsorg, @volkmer_anna, @RionaMcArdle
Good care after a diagnosis is vital - but how is care provided once someone has received a diagnosis? And what are the differences between the UK and Canada? In this episode, I am joined by Leah Rickards, Admiral Nurse, and Dr Robert Madan, Geriatric Psychiatrist.
Leah is an Admiral Nurse for the Royal British Legion. Admiral Nurses originate from Dementia UK, and if you need support, have a look at their website for more info. Leah is also active on twitter: @ericrickards
Robert is a Geriatric Psychiatrist and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Madan is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Deputy Chief of Staff at Baycrest, and is involved clinically in long-term care consultation, and outpatient psychiatry. His academic interests are in the areas of medical education and dementia. Robert is also the Chair of the Products and Services Committee for the International Psychogeriatrics Association.
If you want to find out more about the International Psychogeriatrics Association, and how you can join, have a look at their website here.
Season 4 focuses on some of the Basics of Dementia. In Episode 1, I am joined by Prof Selina Wray and we are discussing what happens in the brain when someone develops or has dementia.
Selina is a Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and Alzheimer's Research UK Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Neurodegenerative Disease at UCL. Selina’s work is focussed on the use of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to model dementia, working closely with clinical colleagues to obtain samples from participants with rare, genetic forms of dementia and using these to understand the molecular basis of Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia.
Follow Selina on twitter for more updates about her research and her public engagement work, and her cat: @SelinaWray
Season 4 will take a look at The Basics of Dementia. Have a listen for the line up of 5 brand new episodes, relased on the 1st of March.
Staying socially active, engaging with friends, family, and peers, is found to be a key to ageing well, and also reduces our chances of developing dementia. So, how can we stay socially active as we age? In this episode, I am talking to two social support providers, who are offering support services for older adults and people with dementia - Justine Shenton from the Sefton Older People's Forum and Di Burbidge from Chinese Wellbeing.
Being joined by two fellow keen runners in this special episode, I talk to Jacquie Millet and Dr Paula Watson from LJMU about running, exercise, and ageing well. Jacquie has only started running after retiring at 58, and is now about to embark on her 210th marathon in her late 60s! Jacquie is also a 6-Star finisher and has done the famous Comrades Marathon. Paula is a regular park runner and exercise psychologist, and highlights how we may not need to run marathons or even engage in exercise to stay physically active in old age, despite the great fun marathons can bring.
In this episode, I am joined by Dr Robyn Dowlen from the University of Leeds and Helena Bull from the Manchester Camerata. We discuss how music and other forms of creativity can help to age well, and should be part of all of our lives. Creativity comes in many forms, you might not know how creative you are.
Robyn is a postdoctoral research associate and has a specialism in the ways in which engaging with arts and culture can impact on our health and wellbeing, and her PhD focussed on understanding the benefits of music for people living with dementia.
Helena is a project manager with Camerata’s Community team, working alongside musicians and various partners to coordinate a range of creative music making projects.
In this episode, I am talking to Dr Frances Darlington-Pollock from the University of Liverpool, lecturer in population geography. Fran is also the Chair of the Board of The Equality Trust, and is talking about how where we live can determine what type of dementia and ageing care we can access. To find out more about Fran's work, follow her on Twitter @F_Darlington.
In this episode, I am talking to Carol Rogers and John-Paul Mills from House of Memories, based in Liverpool. House of Memories is part of National Museums Liverpool and provides a dementia awareness programme and community service for family and professional carers, enabling carers to talk with the person with dementia about objects and memories from the past. House of Memories also operates globally, and there are different ways in which people can access the service - from face-to-face at the Museum, in the digital app, or, brand new, House of Memories On The Road immersive mobile museum. To keep up to date with House of Memories, follow them on Twitter @house_memories
In this episode, I am talking to Dr Catherine Talbot, Lecturer at Bournemouth University, about digital inequalities in dementia and ageing. She is sharing her latest research into how COVID-19 has affected digital tech usage in dementia, and we discuss more broadly how digital technology seems to be part of future care.
For more insights into her research, take a look at her webpage here or follow Catherine on Twitter @CatherineTalb
In this Episode in the 1st season about COVID-19 and care, I spoke with Julie Dickinson and Hilary Tetlow - two carers of someone living with dementia - about their experiences during the pandemic. Julie is caring for her husband Phil at home, and has changed her lifestyle completely since the pandemic. Hilary used to care for her mother and her uncle with dementia, and is currently caring for a friend with a rare dementia. She is also involved with SURF Liverpool, a dementia support group.
In this Episode, I am joined by three researchers in the field of long-term care - all of whom have looked at how the pandemic has impacted on care homes. Prof Hilde Verbeek is a Professor of Long-Term Care Environments at Maastricht University, the Netherlands and the Vice chair of the Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care. Adelina Comas-Herrera is a researcher in long-term care and dementia care policy at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics. She is curator of LTCcovid.org, a website to support sharing of evidence and experiences on COVID-19 and long-term care. Dr Jenni Burton is a clinical academic in geriatric medicine at the University of Glasgow, working as a registrar in Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Her research aims to improve understanding of the needs of those living in care homes, with a focus on pathways into care.
With each having a different focus on care homes, we are discussing the many angles in which residents, staff, and family carers have been affected.
In Episode 2, I am joined by three social support service providers all providing support for those living with dementia and family carers. Jacqui Cannon is a former carer and CEO of the Lewy Body Society, a Wigan-based dementia charity operating nationally. Ripaljeet Kaur is a Coordinator at BME Dementia Service at Touchstone, a mental health organization based in Leeds. Nanette Mellor is Chief Executive Officer of The Brain Charity which is an organisation that offers emotional support, practical help and social activities for individuals with any neurological condition.
In this episode, we talk about the challenges faced in providing support for dementia during the pandemic, and how smaller and larger charities had to adapt.
In the very first episode of Season 1, I am joined by Dr Emma Vardy, Consultant Geriatrician at Salford Royal Hospital. Emma is is the Chair for the British Geriatrics Society dementia and related disorders special interest group, and deputy editor of Age & Ageing. In this episode, we are talking about how the pandemic has impacted on care for older people, those with and those without dementia, with Emma sharing insights from her clinical practice and about how her job has changed during the pandemic.
Welcome to The Ageing Scientist – a new podcast focusing on all things science and ageing, discussing different topics with academics, clinicians, service providers, and older people, and people affected by dementia. My name is Clarissa Giebel, and I am a researcher based at the University of Liverpool, exploring inequalities in dementia care and ageing.