Dementia care: latest insights from research

Professor Martin Knapp CBE is Director of NIHR's School for Social Care Research, and Professor of Health and Social Care Policy in the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Martin has worked for many years in the fields of health and social care research. His current research emphases are primarily social care for adults, dementia, child and adult mental health, and neurodevelopmental conditions. Much of his work uses economic arguments and evidence to inform policy discussion and practice development. He collaborates regularly with community organisations, service providers and public sector commissioners.

Martin was awarded a CBE in 2022 for services to social care research.

Jane is based at the Centre for Ageing & Population Studies, within the Research Department of Primary Care & Population Health, University College London (1999-present). Her main research interests are in dementia, ageing, emergent technologies and trials of complex interventions in primary care and community settings. This includes a focus on improving the diagnosis and management and end of life care for people with dementia and their families. Examples include managing the NIHR programme EVIDEM and The Dykes award from the Alzheimer’s Society for an RCT on the effectiveness of educational interventions in improving the detection and management of dementia in primary care.

Jane is an advocate for partnering with people living with dementia and care partners throughout the dementia research process. She is currently involved in two co-design studies creating an online dementia guide to support people after a diagnosis of dementia, Forward with dementia. She is a qualitative methodology expert for the NIHR Research Design Service London and is a UCL Tutor teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Health care research across several courses. She is a member of the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network and Training Committee.

Dr Paul Clarkson is a specialist social care academic and researcher, Senior Lecturer in Social Care and Deputy Director, Social Care and Society research group at the University of Manchester.  He is a Senior Fellow of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), School for Social Care Research. 

His background is in psychiatric and medical social work, and he has led on research around dementia, carers, work on routinely collected data in social care and research on assessment.  Paul has held research grants with the NIHR including large programmes of dementia care research, evidencing the effectiveness of care, and innovative ways in which to involve the public and diverse communities in research.  He has specialist roles with NIHR in building capacity for social care practitioners, home care workers and social workers to take part in and lead on research studies.  He is also part of an international collaboration to improve the way older people are assessed for the care they need and to prevent risks to their well-being.