Naomi celebrating the submission of her dementia care research thesis

A weekend of celebration

This time I have the most exciting update ever – I did it! I actually submitted my PhD thesis to my examiners!

My defense Viva is booked for the end of May where I will be questioned and critiqued. I’ll have the opportunity to discuss my project with an interested and captive audience. It’s a scary prospect but I’m also quite excited! For now, I can have some time out!

Celebration!

Of course I celebrated at the weekend! I went away for the night with Joe (my husband) who deserves huge acknowledgement for his encouragement, patience and ongoing support living with me through this whole experience to date. He has helped me through the emotional highs and lows, and always been available for technical support or to read through my writing when I could no longer see straight! We definitely deserved our treats of the spa, facials, steak and wine.

Sharing – mental ill-health in ageing

The weekend was not all just for fun though. I was privileged to be able to speak as part of a Lent series at St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s church, Great Missenden about Mental Health and Human Flourishing in ageing. Actually, for me, it just continued the fun!

I loved being able to use my knowledge and experience from the PhD process, as well as my clinical practice, to teach and encourage people who are facing the challenge of mental ill-health in ageing – either themselves or through caring for loved ones.  The response after my talk was overwhelming, with people opening up to me about real life, honest, issues. I was touched that people felt they could ask personal questions and honoured to be able to offer what I could to support them.

The slides from my talk can be browsed below, or downloaded here.

 

In summary; I highlighted 3 key areas where mental ill-health can become a problem in ageing: dementia, delirium and depression. The ‘3 Ds’, as they are referred to, can present remarkably similarly. They also often overlap, one leading to another or making another worse. I’m planning to do another blog post soon to expand on this topic, but in the mean time feel free to browse the slides and also go to https://www.islandhealth.ca/ and search ‘3Ds’ or ‘delirium’ for lots of resources great which help differentiate between the 3 Ds of mental health in ageing.

Headless sculptures in Chicago - Alzheimers Conference

Reflections on AAIC 2018

The picture you see at the head of this blog post is a great piece of art in Chicago – one of many throughout the vibrant city!

I was particularly drawn to the sculpture as it represents so well how it can sometimes feel doing a small piece of research into a topic which really can feel like a mine field. I know there’s so much happening around the world towards improving dementia care, but I don’t get to see it, and with so many bits of information coming from so many sources I sometimes wonder: are we all walking around in random directions, unaware of the others around us, trying to head for the same place?

Well, earlier in the summer, I felt both privileged and relieved to go to such a well-attended, global and informative conference: Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2018.

5600 people from 67 countries with one vision, gathered in one place!

Not only did I attend, but I was able to present my own research findings along side other presentations about improving care for people with dementia.

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Dementia Research Conference Scotland Edinburgh

Forging New Frontiers in Dementia Research – Edinburgh

As the end of the PhD draws ever nearer, I’m finding myself thinking more and more of the next steps… where will this take me? what will I be doing this time next year? Will I continue in research, in clinical work or manage to find a role that combines both?

With all this running through my mind it was great to have the opportunity to fly off to Edinburgh and spend a couple of days with other people completing their PhDs in dementia care, scoping out the future of dementia care research whilst building some great networks.

Here are my reflections and, of course, as always, my take-away points which I hope will also be helpful for all those dementia researchers out there, in case anyone is losing the will a bit!

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PHD Update Celebration - Dementia Care Research

Where have I been? A PhD update & some top tips for getting through one!

It has been FAR too long since I sat wrote a blog post, so firstly I apologize for my absence!

So what have I been doing these last few months?

The last time I left you, I was feeling motivated and passionate about my clinical academic role and my future. I can’t stress how important those moments of enthusiasm, positivity and motivation are in this PhD journey:

It’s been a tough few months!

You’ll remember my analogy of the PhD being a roller coaster ride. Well, I feel like the last few months have been one long, slow, HARD trudge up a slope. In fact I think the cart might have stopped half way up!

Being positive and persistent is very important, but I think it’s more important to write really honestly here. I don’t want to cover up how difficult this journey can be with positive and motivational snippets.

The last few months has not been without major stress, panic and anxiety attacks, feelings of losing control, and tears. Of course the ‘cart’ never actually stopped – but it has been hard!

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Why I love being a clinical academic: A week of reminders

A couple of weeks ago I had a very positive week – a series of events that inspired me and reignited my motivation to be a ‘clinical academic’ (or rather, my full title: Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow (CDRF))!

The opportunities this role is already providing, and will provide in the future, are unique and certainly would not have been available had I continued in my full time clinical role as an Occupational Therapist.

My encouraging week was made up of three separate events: the CDRF Conference, teaching undergraduate Occupational Therapy students, and meeting a final year OT undergrad to discuss clinical doctoral research fellowships.

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Phd Rollercoaster Ride

The Phd Rollercoaster Ride

As I browse through my past blog posts, one sentence strikes me as particularly amusing (from the post ‘1 year doing a PhD – things are starting to happen!‘ )

“I’m close to submitting the 3rd…milestone…– it’s time for the pace to pick up!”

Well here I am 8 months later and it certainly doesn’t feel like any pace has picked up!

The Phd roller coaster ride

I like to think that the point at which I wrote that post I was teetering on the highest point of the roller coaster tracks, having trudged up the hill, slowly and laboriously, almost to the point of completing my research proposal. The view was amazing – data collection, research findings, publications and presentations were all on the horizon.

Then I submitted!

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sweden beauty lake river trees - Dementia Care Research

Dementia Summer School in Sweden #demsum

Sweden. A beautiful land of trees, lakes, more trees and more lakes.

The country is also home to at least two internationally-renowned ‘centres of excellence in dementia research’, in Linköping University and the Karolinska Institute, and it is the land which I was honored to visit last week!

The Alzheimer’s Society and NIHR provided funding for an amazing opportunity for Dementia PhD Researchers around the UK and Sweden to get together to learn, network and be inspired. I am privileged to have been a part of it!

So, apart from taking away a selection of Swedish vocabulary, exploring the beautiful city of Norrköping, and enjoying a stunning train journey from Stockholm to Norrköping at sunset, here are my reflections on a fantastic few days:

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PhD 1 Year | Dementia Care Research

1 year doing a PhD – things are starting to happen!

Just over a year in, and I’m close to submitting the 3rd and final milestone of my clinical-academic PhD – it’s time for the pace to pick up!

This milestone is my research proposal, combining and justifying all the procedures and theory that underpin the research project, and laying out a plan for how it’s all going to work in action.

Milestone 3 is a great time to look back, to realise what the last year has been all about.

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