6th IN-LIFE meeting takes place in San Sebastian

The 6th IN-LIFE meeting took place on the 20-21st June in San Sebastian, Spain.

IN-LIFE is a multidisciplinary European project to promote independence for people living with cognitive impairment using ICT’s. 

Global plan on dementia adopted by WHO

Published on 29th May, The World Health Organization (WHO) has unanimously adopted a global plan on dementia at the 70th session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The plan follows ten years of advocacy by ADI for a global response to the growing impact of dementia worldwide.

To read the full article, visit the website: https://www.alz.co.uk/news/global-plan-on-dementia-adopted-by-who

UK Robotics Week @The University of Sheffield

As part of UK Robotics Week, Sheffield Robotics and CATCH will be hosting open labs on Monday 26th June.

Come and explore robotics research at the University of Sheffield, and how robots could impact on our everyday lives. 

Stirling University to launch home dementia app

An app to assess how suitable a home is for someone with dementia is being developed by Stirling University.

The university said it would take about 20 minutes to assess a two-bedroom home using the free app.

You can read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-40109945

Watch: 2-minute animated video short course - Alzheimer's of Dementia?

Is it Alzheimer's? Dementia? Neither? Or both?

A new, simple, and easy-to-understand explanation can be found in this video: http://myalzheimersstory.com/2017/05/30/is-it-alzheimer-dementia-neither-or-both-a-2-minute-animated-video-short-course/

Professor Wendy Moyle from Menzies Health Institute (Queensland)joins June CATCH Networking Lunch as guest speaker

The wider CATCH network came out in force last week to hear from guest speaker, Professor Wendy Moyle with her talk entitled “Companion Robots: Are they Effective in Care of People with Dementia?”

BBC Radio Sheffield - the role that robots are playing in our lives

Dr Ana MacIntosh, Manager of Sheffield Robotics at the University of Sheffield, discusses the University’s research into how people with dementia can benefit from robotics. Professor Tony Prescott, Director of Sheffield Robotics, also discusses the possibilities of having personal relationships with robots ahead of his talk on the subject as part of this month’s Pint of Science festival in Sheffield.

Listen again here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0528wv4#playt=0h37m0s

Help to raise awareness for dementia

On Friday 19th May, drop into the CATCH Home Lab in the Innovation Centre, Sheffield (S1 4DP) for a cup of tea and some cake to create more awareness for dementia and raise money to support those trying to find a cure and support the care of people with the condition.

New publication explores how nursing home residents with dementia respond to the interactive art installation ‘VENSTER’

A paper, co-authored by CATCH Professor Luc de Witte entitled: “How nursing home residents with dementia respond to the interactive art installation ‘VENSTER’: a pilot study” has been published.

26th Alzheimer Europe Conference: Becky Field (Researcher, PhD student and Occupational Therapist) attends and gives presentation

Becky & Jacki

I attended the 26^th Alzheimer Europe Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark (31 October–2 November 2016) http://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Conferences/2016-Copenhagen

The theme of the conference was “excellence in dementia research and care”. It was great to learn about research and service developments across Europe.

Personal highlights from the conference were

-   Hearing from people living with dementia and their caregivers, reminding us what an important contribution they can and do make to research and services.  

- Learning about the work going on in Scotland to develop and deliver post diagnostic support services; great to hear about how it happens, and that post diagnostic support is offered to everyone with a diagnosis of dementia; also to hear about Allied Health Professional roles in dementia services.

http://Alzscot.org                    http://alzscot.org/talking-dementia

The presentation I gave was called ‘Psychosocial Interventions: identifying influences on take up’. This was based on interviews carried out with people living with dementia and their family carers about experiences of participating in a community occupational therapy intervention (as part of the ‘Valuing Active Life in Dementia (VALID)’ research study). As part of my PhD research I am trying to identify influences on why people may or may not accept offers of psychosocial interventions and feel ready to engage in them. This is because government policy now recommends post-diagnostic support and psychosocial interventions, and there is a growing evidence to support the benefits of these interventions. Yet, there is little research about what may help or prevent people from engaging in such interventions to inform development of post diagnostic services.  I hope my doctoral research can contribute to these developments.

As part of the conference I also attended the Interdem Academy Master class: ‘Involving people with dementia as advisors to your research’. http://interdem.org/?page_id=4636

Funder: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research: Grant number: RP-PG 0610-10108

The ‘Valuing Active Life in Dementia’ is evaluating the effectiveness of a community occupational therapy intervention for people with mild to moderate dementia living in the community and their family carers. If you would like more information about this study please see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/valid

If you would like more information about my doctoral research please do get in touch b.field@sheffield.ac.uk

T4I2016 programme now available!

The Technology for Independence (T4I) conference will take place on Monday 28th November 2016 from 08.30 to 17.30 at St. Mary’s Church & Conference Centre, Sheffield.

The programme for the conference is now available here.

The day starts at 8.30 with a packed programme including 22 talks in a variety of areas. We are delighted to have Prof Luc de Witte as a plenary speaker talking about "How to close the gap between what is technically possible and practically available?”. We will also be joined by Stephen Purdham from 3rings who will deliver a session on the Internet of Things.

This year, we will also host a free social event on Sunday 27th November from 7pm, the evening before the conference to give you a great opportunity for additional networking. The pre-event dinner will be hosted at Kelham Island Brewery (23 Alma St, Sheffield, S3 8SA) with steak & ale pie, peas and local beer. Those who have expressed their intent to be a delegate can apply to join this free social event*. Please email us to at t4i@sheffield.ac.uk.

(*Only 20 tickets available. Enquiries will be collected until 02/11/2016, allocated on a first come first served basis. Tickets will be sent out on 07/11/2016.)

Registration for the conference is open, please book your places here.

EXHIBITOR INFORMATION

We also offer exhibition space at the conference venue which is an ideal opportunity to demonstrate Assistive Technology.

We provide wifi, power and a table in a floor area of about 6m2 for £260 (plus VAT). Additional requirements can be accommodated, please get in touch and we will be able to provide you with pricing options.

This year we are also offering a light option for exhibiting. If you only bring a single banner, you can exhibit with the delegate fee of £160.

If you need more information or have specific requirements, please let us know.

We look forward to seeing you in November. If you would like further information about the conference please get in touch with Richard Simmonds.

CATCH joins Facebook to extend its reach @CATCHShef

CATCH is now on Facebook to improve collaboration and generate awareness of our centre, events and activities.

                          

Please like our page here: www.facebook.com/catchshef

With 57 likes in the first week since the page went live, we believe that Facebook is a great platform that will allow us to communicate with patient groups, industry partners, our wider network and the general public about CATCH’s valuable and fascinating research and how you can get involved.

We will also add events to the Facebook events calendar. The upcoming Technology for Independence conference on 28/11/2016 is now open for registration.

To match our shiny new Facebook page, we have a new Twitter handle too: @CATCHshef.

To stay up to date with our latest news, simply like our page and follow us on Twitter.

CATCH project joins Sheffield startups and entrepreneurs to come together to drive innovation

CATCH project NANA joined entrepreneurs and startups in revealing new solutions which will re-energise Sheffield and help its residents live independently at an event on Thursday 29th September.

The ’Demo Day’, which which took place at Sheffield Hallam University, showcased innovative ideas that have been developed in the city over the past year as part of the Sheffield Smart Lab programme.

The Sheffield Smart Lab initiative, a partnership between Sheffield City Council, Amey and the Ferrovial Services Centre of Excellence for Cities, invited entrepreneurs and startup businesses to submit ideas that would help to address the two different challenges.

Over 50 ideas were received from entrepreneurs and startup businesses around the world, which were narrowed down to just nine winning solutions.  NANA, a system that monitors the nutritional intake and cognitive function of older adults, was one of the nine winning solutions.

The winning entrepreneurs and startups were awarded with an incubation and acceleration programme, sponsored by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, and the opportunity to develop their solutions in the city.

They presented their developed solutions at the Demo Day event, showing how their solutions can benefit Sheffield’s residents and visitors.

Simon Butler, Centre Manager for CATCH, who, alongside PhD student Jake Andrews, presented NANA at the event said “it is a fantastic endorsement of the potential of NANA that it was selected as one of the nine winners of the Sheffield Smart Lab. Winning this competition has allowed us to start working on a trial of the system in Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust services that offer short term care and rehabilitation to older people who have experienced a period of ill health or have been in hospital.”

Cllr Leigh Bramall, deputy leader and cabinet member for business for Sheffield City Council, said: “As a council, it is important to us that we drive innovation in Sheffield. There’s an energy and appetite for it in the city and we recognise that in order to do this we need to partner with startups and innovators.

“That’s what Sheffield Smart Lab is all about and by supporting entrepreneurs and helping them to build on their ideas and making them a reality; we have benefited both them and the city.

“The challenges that the solutions solve are hugely important to Sheffield and this has given us a great opportunity to offer a better quality of life for the people of Sheffield and attract visitors to the city centre.“