I am very pleased that the main trial paper out of the VALID study has now been published in PLOS medicine and is available here.
This study formed a significant part of my working life from 2011. As an occupational therapist it was exciting to take part in study that focussed upon how my profession can assist people with mild to moderate dementia and their carers to live as well as possible. It led to collaborative work with occupational therapists and others nationally and also across Europe. Professor Maud Graff, the originator of the programme, was a key partner. The study involved taking the programme developed by Professor Graff, customising it to a UK population (resulting in the COTiD-UK intervention) and evaluating COTID-UK in a large, multi-site randomised controlled trial. The study did not show positive outcomes at a population level for people living with dementia and their carers, but it did reveal how, for some individuals, the occupational therapy input they received was instrumental in assisting them to gain the most out of life despite dementia. It added to our growing body of knowledge of what people need following a diagnosis of dementia, how services might respond and also how we need to improve how we measure participant experiences in this form of study.
Written by Professor Gail Mountain
We are now recruiting for our MSc Advanced Dementia Studies starting in September 2021