Hearing and vision impairments cause difficulties with daily living activities for people living with dementia and impact on communication.
The SENSE-Cog Sensory Intervention is a novel sensory remediation intervention for people with dementia who also experience hearing and / or vision loss. The sensory intervention is currently being empirically tested for efficacy in a large scale RCT which is comparing outcomes for those who receive the intervention against those who receive care as usual. The sensory intervention is comprised of several interacting components including assessment for and provision of corrective sensory devices (hearing aids and / or glasses lenses) by audiology/optometry professionals, and input over 10 visits from a novel ‘sensory support therapist’ to support adoption of the devices into everyday life.
In this MICRA seminar, we will talk about our work from the SENSE-cog project (http://www.sense-cog.eu/), case studies of the first participants who have received the sensory intervention will be presented in order to contextualise the intervention within people with dementia's lives and stimulate discussion about its scope with this varied population. Also our SENSE-Cog care home study is looking into moving forward and adapting the sensory intervention into people with dementia with hearing and sensory impairments living in residential aged care facilities both UK and internationally. Currently, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys are being completed in residential aged care homes and dementia specialist care homes to explore the detection and management of hearing and vision impairments in people with dementia in residential aged care facilities. The study intends to continue exploring this through focus groups and would like your input into how we can move forward in adapting the intervention for care home settings.
Seminar Itinerary:
13:00 - 14:00 - Free Networking Lunch
14:00 - 14:10- Introduction - general introduction by chair (TBC)
14:10 - 14:35 - Background to SENSE-Cog intervention and RCT – Iracema Leroi
14:35 - 15:00 - Experiencing the SENSE-Cog intervention: Sensory Intervention case studies – Emma Hooper
15:00 - 15:25 - An introduction to the SENSE-Cog care home study & PPI Activity- Nisha Chauhan
15:25 - 15:55 - Q&As with the panel of speakers
15:55 - 16:00 – Closing Comments