Recovery colleges

ByCommunity Team

An East Anglian study will look at whether NHS mental health Recovery Colleges can help support people living with dementia.  There are already 85 Recovery Colleges across the country for people who use mental health services, but this will be the first opportunity to see whether they have a role in dementia care specifically.

The colleges offer courses for patients, families and staff, and people who use services help to design and run the courses.  They are known as “peer tutors”. The DISCOVERY study, run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, aims to find out whether people with dementia find the role of peer tutor helps them.

Exeter University’s Professor Chris Fox, who is co-leading the project, explained: “It may seem puzzling to talk about ‘recovery’ in dementia, when dementia is a progressive illness.  However, recovery in mental health refers to ‘recovering a life after diagnosis.’ The ‘personal recovery’ is about managing difficult symptoms whilst living a meaningful, enjoyable life.”

The study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

Similar Posts

  • Vision resource

    ByCommunity Team

    NVISION is a free online resource that helps people with sight problems, including people with Alzheimer’s where it has affected their vision.  The US-based website gives guidance on how a wide range of neurological disorders impact on eyesight, what to expect and what action to take. Here is a link to the webpage containing information…

  • Promising drug results

    ByCommunity Team

    An Alzheimer’s drug from the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai has been shown to slow down patients’ decline in memory, thinking and function in the final stage of trials. The drug, called lecanemab, demonstrated promising results in a phase 3 trial and works by removing Alzheimer’s trademark amyloid protein from the brain. Early results indicated that…

  • New drug announced

    ByCommunity Team

    Just a few months after the announcement of lecanemab as a drug for slowing Alzheimer’s progression, a second new drug has been announced by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.  Called donanemab, it is also a monoclonal antibody drug for removing amyloid protein that builds up in the brain as Alzheimer’s disease progresses.  In people with mild…

  • Spotlight on local priorities

    ByCommunity Team

    Registration is now open for the Alzheimer’s Society Annual Conference, which returns for 2023 during Dementia Action Week. The conference will put a spotlight on making dementia a priority locally, bringing together local leaders in dementia from across the UK to share best practice and challenges, and progress towards aims and ambitions in diagnosis and…

  • Social care in crisis

    ByCommunity Team

    Local authority social care services are “in the midst of a national crisis,” social services directors said in mid-January, resulting in “drastic measures” to curtail services for people in need. In a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) 49 out of the 94 councils responding said that they were taking…