Support for ageing and living with long term conditions

The Support for Ageing and Living with Long Term Conditions (SALLT) theme identifies the best ways to improve how older people and anyone living with long-term conditions are supported by health and social care and their local communities to stay well and be active members of their communities. Our theme’s research has focused on a number of key areas, including:

• Issues that affect people living with dementia and their carers
  • Identifying ways to reduce people’s risks of dementia SPIINNET (Sustainable Prevention, Innovation and INvolvement NETwork)
  • MEDAL: Modelling the Experience of Dementia and Long-term conditions 
  • Understanding how we ensure social prescribing is useful and helpful to people with dementia SPELNDID
  • (TIMES) Tailored management of sleep in dementia 
  • Projects investigating driving performance and the impact of cognitive changes on fitness to drive 
  • Evaluating the implementation and impact of a new dementia-friendly accreditation scheme in Hertfordshire
  • Regional Inequalities and Protective Factors for Dementia
• Research with care homes
  • PREACH - Prioritising Research through Engagement with older Adult Care Homes 
  • The DACHA Study: Developing resources And minimum data set for Care Homes' Adoption study
• Research with assistive technology
  • Use of social robots to reduce loneliness CATLYP - connecting all the lonely people  
  • Barriers and facilitators to digital technologies to support people’s social connectedness DiTSoW 

Other work included exploring ways in which social care can support people with long term conditions living independently in the community; the specific needs of LGBTQ+ people and people living with learning disabilities to enhance inclusion; optimisation of medicines for people living with multiple health problems. WE also host a number of DEM-COMM Fellows.  

To enhance the reach and impact of our work we:

• Work in collaboration with partner ARCs and local patient and community groups to combine knowledge and resources and maximise impact.
• Engage with key partners in the 4 ‘populations in focus’ (PiF) and others across the East of England.
• Develop individuals, teams and organisations research capacity and increase patient and community engagement and participation.

SALLT also represents the ARC East of England on the National Priorities Programme for Adult Social Care and Social Work to develop evidence-based social care services. This collaboration of nine ARCs works with adult social care and social work, care users and carers, practitioners, professions, researchers, and the wider public to identify and address local and national needs in social care servic