I presented two papers at this conference. Both were in parallel sessions, involving 15 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for questions. One presentation was based on my PhD, which is currently in progress: 鈥淭he acceptability and usefulness of talking therapies for staff working in residential and nursing care homes for older adults鈥�.
The second presentation was based on 麻豆原创鈥檚 collaborative project with various universities on psychotherapy for people with dementia: 鈥淲hat are therapists鈥� experiences of, and reflections on, delivering psychotherapeutic interventions to families affected by dementia.鈥� It was based on findings from my paper, which is currently being written.
The conference is multidisciplinary and includes strands related to work and retirement, technology and ageing, social care, physical environments and ageing, inequalities in ageing, physical health, arts and culture, and psychology. The strands that were of most interest to me were linked to the work I am currently doing, relating to care homes and dementia. The BSG have a Care Homes Special Interest Group (SIG), which ran two symposiums at the conference. The presentations ranged from factors involved in running interventions and recruitment, and research surrounding care home staff and residents. It was useful to know about other studies being conducted in the care home context and particular challenges and advice regarding recruitment. One study talked about mental health issues experienced by staff. I also found it to be a friendly conference and fantastic for networking. I spoke to various researchers, two of whom offered me some help with recruiting care homes if I needed it, in terms of care home contacts that they had.
My main take aways from the conference were having the opportunity to present preliminary findings from my PhD work, receiving feedback on this and discussing challenges with recruiting participants for interviews. Hearing the presentations about care home staff mental health and study recruitment were also particularly beneficial for my work. The most valuable aspect of the conference was that it was a really friendly environment, a great chance to hear about research and make contact with people carrying out research related to dementia and in the care home sector.
