Professor Richard Cheston and Dr Sahdia Parveen :: British Society of Gerontology

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Professor Richard Cheston and Dr Sahdia Parveen

Richard Cheston, Professor of Dementia research at the University of the West of England and Sahdia Parveen, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies, University of Bradford will deliver a session entitled ‘Culturally adapting the dementia care pathway for south Asian families’. The talk will focus on the ADAPT study, which aimed to develop an online toolkit to augment the dementia pathway for people from south Asian communities.

Plenary Title:

Culturally adapting the dementia care pathway for south Asian families.

Brief Abstract of Plenary Session:

Brief abstract of plenary session: The number of people living with dementia from south Asian backgrounds is increasing at a greater rate than their white-British equivalents. Despite this, current evidence suggests that people from south Asian communities remain less likely to access the dementia care pathway or to receive NICE recommended treatments compared to their white-British equivalents. This keynote address will focus on how to culturally adapt the dementia care pathway for south Asian communities to ensure families are supported to live well with dementia. This talk will focus on the ADAPT study which aimed to develop an online toolkit to augment the dementia pathway for people from south Asian communities. The study involved collaboration with key stakeholders including south Asian carers, people living with dementia, third sector community organisations and health care professionals. The first part of the study focused upon collation of evidence-based materials and interventions related to dementia awareness, assessment and diagnosis and post diagnostic support; followed by evaluation of materials with stakeholders through workshops. The second phase of the study explored examples of best practice and innovative methods of overcoming barriers to joint working across organisations. Participants from south Asian voluntary sector organisations in particular highlighted a Caucasian-centric bias within services. The online toolkit will be presented, which contains cultural adapted resources for different parts of the pathway and also addresses structural issues preventing collaboration between small voluntary organisations and larger organisations. Whilst the ADAPT study focused upon south Asian communities in the UK; this keynote address will provide recommendations for adapting dementia care pathways and services for other under-served groups.

BSG Annual Conference