Experts by Experience
Our Experts by Experience group work together with us in research, education, and training. There are a range of opportunities for people to get involved, which include:
- Creating, checking and marking the courses we provide
- Advising us and working with us to develop and carry out current and future research
- Working with us to improve dementia care
- Training members of the care workforce with us
- Raising awareness and challenging stigma
Everyone affected by dementia is welcome to become an Expert by Experience and we are committed to involving people with dementia from diagnosis onwards. We are particularly keen to recruit people whose lives have been touched by dementia but whose voices are less often heard, including women, people over 80, members of Black, Asian, Eastern European or other diverse communities, those who live in care homes, and members of LGBTQ groups.
Our Experts by Experience hold regular events at the University and online, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also publish a quarterly newsletter written with people with dementia, family carers and our team at the University.
To find out how to get involved, you can email Clare Mason or fill in our contact form.
You can also visit our Experts by Experience Facebook page.
View our Newsletters.
How are our experts by experience involved in our education?
Our experts by experience play a leading role in our education provision within the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies. People with dementia and their carers are involved in all aspects, including in the delivery of education, marking students’ assessments, reviewing students work, developing the programme and designing new content.
In 2022 we worked with our Experts by Experience to co-produce the UK’s first master’s level dementia education module. The project involves the Experts from the very beginning of the module design process, in creating the title of the module, the focus of the module, the assessment and all its content from scratch. We had twenty-two people living with dementia involved in the project from all over England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Many of the members attended fortnightly zoom workshops. Some members chose to be involved in other ways, such as helping on a one-to-one basis with specific task.
The new module title is Understanding the me in dementia and includes sections on Challenging Stigma and Stereotypes, Seeing the individual, Communication.
Visit the webpage for more detail - https://www.bradford.ac.uk/courses/cpd/understanding-the-me-in-dementia/
At the recent experts by experience social event two of our members, Jacqui Bingham and Julie Hayden spoke about their experience of being involved in the project. Julie said “To date in research and education we have been used to involvement opportunities whereby the organisations themselves have designed and written the piece of work outlined, while those of us living with dementia have only been added on as an afterthought. This type of inclusion is too often very tokenistic and more of a PR exercise than anything else - though I am not referring to Bradford here. Over the last 20 years Bradford university has a proven track record of quality engagement and valuing its experts by experience. This is my second involvement in co-production, and I am certain it is the only valid, quality way forward.