Dawn Brooker brings personal experience of dementia to the judging panel
6 April 2023
Meet the Judges: Prof. Dawn Brooker, Emeritus Professor and former Director of the University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, UK
“My very earliest memories are of my grandfather who called me Joan (my mum’s name) but who surrounded me with love and played endless repetitive games with me.
He died suddenly when I was four years old. My aunties described his passing as a ‘blessing’. It wasn’t a blessing for me! My grandfather inspired me with his love. The angry sense of injustice that I felt about his life being dismissed has fuelled my passion for working in dementia care ever since.
In my work as a clinical psychologist I was privileged to be part of many people’s lives who were struggling to find a voice in their dementia. I frequently felt out of my depth but was blessed by working with some great role models who taught me to see the importance of walking the walk not just talking the talk.
The best thing that has happened in my career is that people living with dementia now have a voice as citizens. I was fortunate to count the late Peter Ashley, a leading global dementia advocate, as a friend, after we shared a conference stage together and he said ‘I’m not dying from dementia, I am living with dementia’.
Peter’s simple advocacy and that of the many other advocates who speak from their lived experience are a constant inspiration to me to do a better job.”
Why are you excited to be judging the Longitude Prize on Dementia?
I have worked in dementia care for a very long time and researching the “cure” has been around for all of that time. I fervently hope that in the next few years we will have an effective disease-modifying treatment that is widely available. Even if this happens tomorrow, however, we will still be living with the impact of dementia for many years to come.
We already know a lot about what really helps to improve the quality of care for people, families and communities affected by dementia. The focus has to be how we get this to be part of everyday care for the millions of people who will continue to be affected by dementia.
The Longitude Prize on Dementia is a way to accelerate this through advances in technology. I am excited to be part of the process with the next generation of serious researchers and innovators to do all we can to ensure their projects are relevant and impactful.
What experiences and insights will you be bringing to the judging process?
I am a Professor Emeritus in Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester in the UK, where I was formerly the Director of the Association for Dementia Studies. I have a long career of working at the interface between the experience of those affected by dementia, organisations providing care and support and those undertaking research in care innovation.
I can provide insights into all of these spheres and facilitate knowledge exchange between these different world views. I am internationally recognised for scholarship in practice development of person-centred dementia care and I have long-established working relationships with practitioners and scholars worldwide. I will bring this international perspective to the judging process.
I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1984 and I worked in the NHS specialising in the care of older people. I completed my PhD whilst still working in the NHS, to develop a coherent psychological model of dementia that enabled those delivering care to do so in a manner that supported well-being. I moved into university leadership posts in dementia studies in 1999.
In 2009, I established the University of Worcester’s Association for Dementia Studies where I brought together a multi-disciplinary team dedicated to improving the lives of those living with dementia through research, education and practice development. Critically, people with dementia, their families and their carers have informed the work of the Association at all stages.
Over many decades, I have developed in-depth experience of what works and what is likely not to work in making a difference to people’s lives.
What difference do you think assistive technologies will make to people living with dementia?
Technology has revolutionised my life on every level in ways that would have been deemed as science fiction when I was a child. Ensuring that people have the right technology at the right time, provided in a way that values personhood, to compensate for cognitive loss and to achieve optimal health and well-being, could revolutionise the lives of those affected by dementia.
Have you seen an appetite for technology amongst people living with dementia? What do innovators need to take into consideration in designing for this audience?
Assistive technologies have been around in the dementia care field for many years. Until relatively recently I would say most of the products available were not particularly popular. Ethical issues about intrusion or replacing people with robots, or technology that was difficult to operate, got in the way. Also, people do not want to be infantilised and some products felt as if they were aimed at children.
I have also seen many expensive items of equipment languishing in cupboards in homes and care facilities because they were seen as short-term fads or the people that championed them moved on or people’s abilities changed.
I think that now assistive technologies are much more central to everyone’s lives such as smart phones and TVs, tablets, Alexa and GPS – people affected by dementia are also using technology to assist them in just living their lives.
Innovators need to ensure that their solutions are addressing issues that people care about, that don’t make them feel ill at ease. They also need to recognise that people’s needs and abilities will change over time – often in unpredictable ways. If their innovation requires care staff input, then they need to recognise that workforce is very high turnover in the dementia field. Innovations need to be flexible to changing needs and have longevity.
Professor Dawn Brooker, PHD, MBE
