National Institute of Health Research is the NHS’s grant awarding body and has many different programmes of research.
We were particularly interested to investigate how people with a diagnosis of dementia were cared for following an admission to hospital after an acute health event, such as a chest infection or a fractured neck of femur.
Our reason for this was two-fold; firstly, due to increasing life expectancy, the number of people in hospital who have a diagnosis of dementia has dramatically increased.
Secondly, statistics showed that the outcomes for people living with dementia were far worse than those without. This was so across all clinical conditions.
The ‘Research for Patient Benefit’ (RfPB), one of several NIHR research programmes funded the study. It was well received and gathered a lot of media attention.
During the study, one of the key observations was around how continence care was managed. This led to the second study, also fund by the RfPB programme.
Our new project has attracted more funding as the NIHR believe what we study is of primary importance in ensuring the well-being of people who live with dementia