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PhD Studentship: NIDUS (New Interventions for independence in Dementia Study), - Ref:1704881
UCL Department / Division - UCL Division of Psychiatry
Specific unit / Sub department - Mental Health of Older People Department
Duration of Studentship - 3 years
Stipend - £16,553 per annum, subject to nationality and residence status
Vacancy Information
Applications are invited for a funded, fulltime PhD studentship within the Alzheimer’s Society Centre of Excellence for Independence at Home programme grant, which will be hosted within UCL Division of Psychiatry from March 2018, led by Dr Claudia Cooper. Our programme aims to develop manualised interventions for people living with dementia and their family and paid home carers. We want these to enable people with dementia to live a quality life at home through supporting them and their family carer, directly and through improved home care services where they receive them.
The studentship will cover fees and include a full time maintenance stipend.
Studentship Description
This post is due to begin in March 2018 and is funded for 3 years, based at UCL Division of Psychiatry. It is an exciting opportunity to undertake a PhD in applied health and social science. Dr Claudia Cooper (Clinical Reader, Division of Psychiatry) will be the primary supervisor. Jill Manthorpe (Professor of Social Work and Director of the KCL Social Care Workforce Research Unit) will be second supervisor. Penny Rapaport, clinical psychologist and deputy programme lead, will also be on the supervisory panel. This studentship will include opportunities to engage with researchers across a broad range of health and social care disciplines.
The focus of this PhD will be dementia training, skills and learning in the home care sector. The student will develop a protocol with supervisory support, to explore and understand barriers and facilitators to implementing psychosocial interventions delivered through staff training in home care agencies. The candidate will develop a deep understanding of organisational cultures in which NIDUS-professional will work.
In year one, the NIDUS study plan involves non-participant observations and qualitative interviews within the home care sector. We anticipate that the non-participant observations will be a rich source of data for this studentship. The student will update existing systematic reviews of training materials and existing interventions designed to increase home care workers’ dementia skills.
In year two, the student will scope home care services, to identify management structures, service configurations, as well as current training and staff’s perceived needs for training development. The student will contribute to co-production workshops to develop a training and support intervention for the home care workforce, which will be grounded in findings from the programme’s qualitative and systematic review work. This will involve close collaboration with the NIDUS group working at University of Bradford School of Dementia Studies. In year three the student will design a pilot trial with process evaluation to test acceptability and feasibility of the new intervention.
Person Specification
The successful candidate will have a Master’s qualification in a relevant discipline and a minimum of a 2:1 or equivalent in a first degree or professional qualification. All applicants are required to have excellent written and verbal communication skills and will undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. They should also be willing to work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary and multi-professional teams. We will expect them to have demonstrated a research interest in dementia and to have a strong interest in social science research and qualitative methods.
For a full person specification, please see the further particulars attached to this advert.
Eligibility
Only applicants eligible to pay fees at the UK/EU rate will be considered. You must normally be a national of a European Union (EU) country, or the relevant family member of an EU national, and have been ordinarily resident within the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland for the three year period before the first day of the first academic year of the programme.
Please submit applications in the following format:
A CV, including full details of all University course grades to date.
Contact details for two academic or professional referees (at least one academic)
A personal statement (750 words maximum) outlining (i) your suitability for the project with reference to the criteria in the person specification, (ii) what you hope to achieve from the PhD and (iii) your research experience to-date.
Please include a contact telephone number and an email address where you can be easily reached. References will be taken up for all short-listed candidates.
Please send electronic applications to Nuj Monowari - details below. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Contact name - Nuj Monowari
Contact details - n.monowari@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Taking Action for Equality
Closing Date - 18 Jan 2018
Interview date - Friday 26 January (a.m.)
Studentship Start Date - March 2018
If you apply for this position please say you saw it on Psychoneuroxy
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