MARQUE PhDs

We are proud to have three PhD projects taking place within MARQUE:

Quality of life: a comparison of the perspectives of paid staff, family relatives and individual's with dementia in care homes.

- Sarah Robertson

This PhD is embedded into Stream 2 and compares and explores the perspectives of paid staff, family relatives and people with dementia in a care home setting. In her PhD, Sarah is investigating quality of life as an outcome in care homes from two proxy perspectives: paid carers and family carers. Sarah will be comparing the DEMQOL-proxy data collected in Stream 2 and conducting qualitative interviews with participants to build a conceptual model of quality of life. Supervisors: Prof Gill Livingston, Dr Claudia Cooper, Dr Juanita Hoe.

A longitudinal study exploring the prescription and administration of analgesic and psychotropic medication in UK care home residents with dementia.

- Francesca La Frenais

A prospective study exploring medication use in residents with dementia in UK care homes. The primary objective investigates whether taking a higher dose of analgesic (pain) medication means that a resident will receive more or less psychotropic e.g. anti-psychotic medication. The PhD commenced in October 2014 and is in collaboration with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department (supervisors Dr Liz Sampson, Prof Paddy Stone, MCPCRD, and Prof Carmel Hughes, Queen's University Belfast).

Development of an evidence based intervention to improve agitation for people with dementia in care homes.

- Dr. Penny Rapaport

This PhD is embedded within Stream 3. The PhD will explore and describe: staff understanding of agitation; the barriers and facilitators to psychosocial intervention through staff training; the contributors to "care home culture" and what can facilitate a shift in these factors. This exploratory work will inform the development and piloting of the intervention. Supervisors: Prof Gill Livingston, Dr Claudia Cooper.