Alison Wheatley

Newcastle University | NCL · Population Health Sciences Institute

Introduction: Care is often inadequate and poorly integrated after a dementia diagnosis. Research and policy highlight the unaffordability and unsustainability of specialist-led support, and instead suggest a task-shared model, led by primary care. This study is part of the PriDem primary care led postdiagnostic dementia care research programme an...

Background: The need to improve support following a diagnosis of dementia is widely recognised, but it is unclear how this can best be achieved within UK health and social care systems. A task-shared and task-shifted approach has been recommended, but there is limited guidance on how to achieve this in practice. As part of a programme of research,...

Background In England and Wales, the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) financially rewards GP practices for long-term conditions management, including completion of annual dementia reviews. There is limited evidence about how this works in practice and whether it meets patients’ and carers’ needs. Methods Data from five qualitative datasets wer...

Objectives To explore the impact of COVID-19 on postdiagnostic dementia care and support provision in England and Wales. Design Qualitative research using semistructured interviews, via video or telephone conferencing. Setting Services providing postdiagnostic support across health, social care and the third sector. Participants 21 professionals...

Background There has been a shift in focus of international dementia policies from improving diagnostic rates to enhancing the post-diagnostic support provided to people with dementia and their carers. There is, however, little agreement over what constitutes good post-diagnostic support. This study aimed to identify the components of post-diagnost...

Background: Growing numbers of interventions are being developed to support families living with dementia, but the extent to which they address the issues of most importance to people living with dementia and their carers is unclear. The aim of this review is to synthesise the best available qualitative evidence on the outcomes valued by (a) peopl...

Background Currently, post-diagnostic dementia care and support in England and Wales is highly variable, and often insufficient in meeting the needs of people living with dementia and their families. Objective To develop and deliver a new primary care based intervention to enable people living with dementia and their carers to live as well as poss...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated widespread change across health and social care in England and Wales. A series of lockdowns and UK Government guidance designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 which emphasised social distancing and increased use of personal protective equipment led to changes such as increased use of remote consultati...

Introduction Growing numbers of interventions are being developed to support people and families living with dementia, but the extent to which they address the areas of most importance to the intended recipients is unclear. This qualitative review will synthesise outcomes identified as important from the perspectives of people living with dementia...

Background inequalities and gaps in post-diagnostic support (PDS) for people with dementia persist despite a policy focus on dementia in England and Wales. Understanding and overcoming the factors contributing to these inequalities is vital to improve care for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their families. Objective to explore common barri...

Objectives: To explore the views of commissioners, service development leads, service managers and senior staff in selected dementia services on increasing the role of primary care in postdiagnostic support for people with dementia. Design: Qualitative semi-structured telephone interviews and a focus group. Setting: Participants were drawn fro...

The number of older people living with complex health conditions is increasing, with the majority of these managed in primary and community settings. Many models of care have been developed to support them, however, there is mixed evidence on their value and they include multiple overlapping components. We aimed to synthesise the evidence to learn...

Background Dementia is a global public health challenge, the significant consequences of which are recognised in global and national health policies. Despite approaches to improve the implementation of evidence-based dementia care in primary care and the inclusion of indicators for dementia in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), there is cons...

Background Fall-related injuries are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in people with dementia. There is presently little evidence to guide the management of such injuries, and yet there are potentially substantial benefits to be gained if the outcomes of these injuries could be improved. This study aimed to design an appropriate new h...

Introduction: people with dementia are more likely to fall and less likely to recover well after a fall than cognitively intact older people. Little is known about how best to deliver services to this patient group. This paper explored current service provision to help inform the development of a new intervention. Methods: qualitative approaches...

Background Falls in people with dementia can result in a number of physical and psychosocial consequences. However, there is limited evidence to inform how best to deliver services to people with dementia following a fall. The aim of the DIFRID study was to determine the feasibility of developing and implementing a new intervention to improve outco...

Objectives: People with dementia are more likely to fall and less likely to recover well after a fall than cognitively intact older people. Little is known about how best to deliver services to this patient group. This paper explores the importance of compensating for cognitive impairment when working with people with dementia. Methods: Qualitat...

Background People with dementia (PWD) experience ten times as many incident falls as people without dementia. Little is known about how best to deliver services to people with dementia following a fall. We used an integrated, mixed-methods approach to develop a new intervention which combines theory generated via a realist synthesis and data on cur...

The PriDem research programme aims to develop and evaluate components of evidence-based, person-centred, primary care led post diagnostic support to better meet the needs of people with dementia and their families. This research addresses post diagnostic dementia care as recently defined by the World Alzheimer’s Association; a ‘system of holistic,...

Sperm banks in Denmark produce and export donor semen worldwide. The role of the sperm bank is to provide high-quality, safe semen from desirable donors. However, over the last 20 years, global sperm counts are reported to be falling. Along with these discourses comes the implication that poor fertility is a personal failing, which implies a confla...

There has been a great deal of discussion about the ethical implications of donating sperm and of the ways in which donated tissue is presented, selected, and sold for use in assisted reproduction. Debates have emerged within the academic sphere, from donor offspring and recipients, and in broader popular culture, including questions about the commo...

Background: People with dementia living in their own home experience ten times as many incident falls than people without dementia (Allan et al., 2009). They are less likely to recover well after a fall, more likely to be hospitalised and for longer, and are more likely to require increased care. Multifactorial falls services, while effective in pr...

New reproductive technologies have allowed for a disruption of traditional kinship networks through the broadening of who is considered related. In this article, I explore Danish sperm donors’ accounts of relatedness and how they situate themselves within the networks that are formed – or have the potential to be formed – through donor insemination...

Denmark is a major exporter of both anonymous and identity-release donor sperm worldwide, and is home to one the world's largest sperm bank networks. The country's legal framework allows for sperm donors to make the choice whether to be anonymous or to release their identity to potential offspring, in contrast to the majority of European countries...

Presentation of some of the major themes of my PhD research: Money, Work, and (Re)Production; Pride and Shame; The Biological and the Social; Selection, Choice, and Fitness to Parent.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume3issue2/wheatley/ This article discusses a study of internet use amongst those invested in donor insemination: donor offspring, parents who have used donor insemination and donors. The study aimed to discover the ways in which the internet was used to negotiate the issues surrou...