Working with participants with dementia: Access, ethics, and analysis

This online workshop has been organised by Sheffield Hallam University and is open to all ESRC and non-ESRC funded PhD and MA Social Research students within the WRDTP’s seven partner universities. PGRs from all seven interdisciplinary Pathways are welcome to attend.

Plenty of people with dementia want to be involved in research, and plenty of researchers want to involve people with dementia, but just aren’t sure how to go about it. People with dementia have often either been excluded from research because of assumptions about consent and communication, or only included when there is a carer to facilitate. This means an important perspective is being missed.

The research discussed in this session has focused on the needs and experiences of people with dementia who live alone and who have no family and friends living nearby. People from this group have been involved as participants and project advisers, they’ve shaped interview questions, been involved in qualitative analysis, and co-designed project outputs.

Jenni Brooks and Mandy Willcox from Sheffield Hallam University will discuss their experiences of how this has worked, getting you to think about key issues to consider, pointing you towards some resources that can help, and inviting you to think creatively about how you might involve people with dementia in your research.