Live well with dementia evaluation

The project is an evaluation of the Alzheimer’s Society Live Well with Dementia (LWwD) Programme. LWwD aims to provide the knowledge, skills and practical tools that can support people to live well with dementia based on the principles and desired outcomes of self-care. The programme was designed in collaboration with people living with dementia. The evaluation is in two parts:

  • evaluation of the co-design and development process
  • evaluation of the programme that results from this process, both in pilot and first phase of delivery.

A combination of observation and interviews with both facilitators and people with dementia were used for data collection. Feedback was provided to the Alzheimer’s Society at various stages to inform further development of the programme.

Project timeframe

The evaluation runs alongside the programme development and delivery phases, from November 2013 until end of March 2017.

Project aims

The project aims to evaluate the success of the LWwD programme in terms of both the co-design/development and delivery phases. Key questions for each phase are outlined below.

In co-design phase:

  • What has been the experience of people with dementia and staff working with them in the co-design/development of the LWwD programme?
  • What has facilitated the process and what barriers have there been?

In the delivery phase:

  • To what extent is the LWwD programme successful in providing knowledge, skills and practical tools to support people with dementia to be actively involved in their own self-care?
  • To what extent does the timeliness of the LWwD programme to the individual situations of participants (ie. length of time since diagnosis/onset) impact on their overall experience and their ability to benefit from participation?
  • Are there ways in which the delivery (content and/or style) could be improved or made more appropriate?

Project findings and impact

The evaluation ran alongside the development timetable of the programme and feedback was provided to the Alzheimer’s Society (AS) at various stages of its design, development and delivery. An interim report on the co-design phase was submitted to the AS in July 2014.

A literature review which was undertaken by the research team on ‘Self-care, self-management and dementia’ in 2013 (updated in 2014) and also informed the development of the programme and will also inform future publications.

The final report giving an overview of the evaluation was published in March 2017.

Alzheimer's-Society

For the detailed findings, please read the External evaluation of the Alzheimer's Society Live Well with Dementia programme.

Research team

Professor Flis Henwood

Professor Diane Waller OBE

Naomi Smith

Output

External evaluation of the Alzheimer's Society Live Well with Dementia programme, March 2017.

Partners

Alzheimer's Society