爱豆传媒

Time for Dementia pairs medical students from the school and nursing and paramedic students from the University of Surrey with local families where a member has been diagnosed with dementia. Students visit a family three or four times a year, for up to two hours each time, to improve their knowledge, attitudes and empathy towards people with dementia and their carers. About 400 families and 800 students in Surrey and Sussex are currently taking part in what is the first project of its kind on such a scale in the world.

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), run jointly by the universities of Brighton and Sussex, received an award for 'Innovators and Leaders: Excellence in Training' at the Laing Buisson Awards which celebrate industry excellence and innovative UK health and care services in the public, private and third sectors.

The success follows on from the team winning the Best Dementia Training Initiative title at the 2016 Dementia Care Awards.

Professor Sube Banerjee

Professor Sube Banerjee, Professor of Dementia at BSMS and Director of Time for Dementia, said: “We are surprised and delighted to have been awarded this prestigious award. It was open to the whole of healthcare and the competition was tough. Our success is a testament to the hard work of our partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, the NHS and the universities of Brighton, Surrey and Sussex, but above all to the commitment of the families who act as mentors and our students at BSMS and the University of Surrey.

“The feedback from families and students has been really positive, and the positive story that we are telling is really getting through: that we can enable the healthcare professionals of the future to be better at understanding and empathising with people with dementia and their families than the doctors and nurses we have now.”

The programme is run by the Centre for Dementia Studies, a joint initiative of BSMS and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the University of Surrey, the Alzheimer’s Society and Surrey and Sussex Borders NHS Foundation Trust.

Over 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK and 25 million have a friend or family member with the condition. Sussex and the South East have the highest proportion of older people of any area in the UK. Across Sussex over 25,000 people currently have dementia and this is set to rise to 30,000 over the next 10 years.