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Can videos that capture the lived experiences of individuals living with dementia improve healthcare dementia education?
Alison Jane Canty, Ph.D.
University of Tasmania
Tasmania, Australia
Background
According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2023 Facts and Figures Report, the number of individuals living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is increasing globally, making dementia awareness a public health priority worldwide. Additionally, many individuals living with dementia are reported to be underdiagnosed in the primary care setting. Thus, there is an urgent need to effectively educate healthcare workers about dementia. However, current dementia education often does not include the perspective of those living with dementia and does not fully capture the impact dementia has on the individual, their family, and their community. Dr. Alison Canty and colleagues propose a pilot study to capture the lived experiences of individuals living with dementia through digital storytelling to incorporate their findings into healthcare dementia education programs.
Research Plan
Dr. Canty and the team will first conduct video interviews with 5 individuals living with dementia and their care partners to capture their diagnosis story and the challenges they experience living with dementia. Each story will be shared with a range of healthcare professionals to capture their perspectives on how they would approach care and support for each individual. These “digital stories” will then be incorporated into the first-year curriculum for students enrolled in a health degree program at the University of Tasmania. Following completion of the course, the researchers will collect student evaluations to measure the impact of the digital stories on their dementia education. Lastly, Dr. Canty and the team will make the videos freely available to other education and training programs for healthcare workers.
Impact
If successful, results from this study could create a new resource that may improve healthcare worker's knowledge of the lived experiences of individuals with dementia and their care partners to improve diagnosis, care, and support.
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