Kate Gridley blogs for 'Research in Practice for adults'

Kate Gridley has recently published a blog on the website Research in Practice for adults, an organisation that aims to influence and improve practice by sharing evidence to improve outcomes for adults and their families. By bringing together academic research, practice expertise and the experiences of people accessing services, they aim to help professionals across the sector to make evidence-informed decisions about the design and delivery of Adults’ Services.

Kate’s blog focuses on her recent work examining the role of life story work in dementia care. She reports on the outcomes of focus groups that aimed to give a voice to people with dementia, family carers and professionals on the best way to approach life story work.

Working within the Social Policy Research Unit, Kate and a team of researchers launched this research in 2012, which culminated in a five-minute film aimed at raising awareness or training staff in life story work in dementia care. The film is available for anyone to use for non-commercial purposes.

This research has also given rise to a published paper, authored by Kate, Yvonne Birks and Gillian Parker, entitled 'Exploring good practice in life story work with people with dementia: The findings of a qualitative study looking at the multiple views of stakeholders'. The paper is available through the publisher's website.

• Read Kate's blog
• Find out more about Kate’s research into life stories in dementia care
• Kate's research on the York Research Database