Dementia is chronic and has a major impact on the lives of both the affected person and their relatives. As more people live longer, the need for functioning person-centred support structures also increases. DEMSAM will contribute with scientific knowledge about early and preventive interventions, strengthened collaboration between healthcare and social services actors and new ways of organizing work so that inequality, sex/gender aspects and special needs are considered.
In line with the national dementia strategy
The Principal applicant, Professor Helle Wijk, emphasizes that the Centre’s focus and working methods are one of its great assets:
– My fellow applicants have been fantastic. We worked on everything as a team, every single detail, and it was a very nice process. DEMSAM's strength is that the Centre is in line with the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare's national dementia strategy. You must look at what affects everyday life for people with dementia. And that's where I think we can make a difference.
Axel Wolf, Centre Director at GPCC, highlights that DEMSAM is not only a large research initiative, but a long-term and necessary governance structure for scaling up a sustainable implementation of person-centred integrated care and welfare.
– With the national dementia strategy as a strategic framework, I see DEMSAM as the engine for operationalizing and integrating research with innovative models for governance and management. DEMSAM will thus be the key to ensuring that Sweden holds on to its leading position internationally in the field.
Person-centredness central to both the new Centre and a more dementia-friendly society
Person-centredness will permeate research at DEMSAM. Qarin Lood is an Associate Professor of occupational therapy, a GPCC Researcher and a Research Leader for one of the DEMSAM work packages. She explains that the new Centre establishes a long-term and scalable structure for research, education and community engagement, where people living with dementia, together with their families and care partners, are active co-creators of knowledge.
– I hope that the work leads to concrete improvements in people's everyday lives: care and welfare that not only works but really makes a difference by utilizing people's various resources, experiences and knowledge. We want to enhance participation, dignity and inclusion for everyone affected by dementia by counteracting inequalities, developing scalable innovations and contributing to change in governance and policy, and thereby laying the foundation for a more dementia-friendly society.
Hans-Inge Persson, a co-researcher with carer experience at GPCC for many years, is proud and happy to become a member of DEMSAM's steering group.
– DEMSAM's work should be permeated by person-centredness, which should be the direction and norm for the work. This makes me feel at home in the environment itself. Developing health care or care through collaboration between different actors always makes citizens the winners when it puts them at the center. Since dementia has a major impact not only on the person themselves, but also on their loved ones, it is essential that everyone receives modern, person-centred care. Everything will be done, among other things, through a deep scientific foundation. One of my roles could be to ensure that Centre activity results reach citizens. That is where the value of health care and care arises.
Collaboration across disciplines is a central part of the Centre’s research profile. DEMSAM connects competencies from, among other fields, health and care sciences, rehabilitation, social work, neuroscience and physiology, dentistry, and architecture, it also involves municipal services as active partners.
A clear strength of DEMSAM is the broad approach, says Helle Wijk: “We highlight, among other things, dental care for older persons, an area that is often forgotten but central for older persons’ health. Furthermore, we have a strong partner in Chalmers University of Technology’s Department of Architecture and civil engineering, so that we can develop research on both residential environments and community development. The breadth makes it possible to create projects where dentistry, neuroscience, architecture and health and care sciences meet. We can also build up an in-depth collaboration with the municipality, something that is important for person-centred integrated care and welfare, but still rare. Here we could lead the way.
The research will have an impact both in the short and long term, not least by highlighting issues that often get sidelined.
– I think it is a statement that this is about how everyday life works for people with dementia, their relatives and staff, says Helle Wijk. DEMSAM is about research with persons living with dementia and their situation. In the long term, I see a developed collaboration across care and welfare levels. Persons living with dementia are everywhere in the care and welfare system; they break bones and get infections like everyone else, and they need the right help.