Mary O'Malley

• PhD (Psychology)
• Senior Research Fellow at University of Worcester

Environments need to be designed such that they support successful orientation for older adults and those with dementia who often experience marked difficulties in their orientation abilities. To better understand how environments can compensate for decreasing orientation skills, voice should be given directly to those experiencing dementia to desc...

Alzheimer's disease results in marked declines in navigation skills that are particularly pronounced in unfamiliar environments. However, many people with Alzheimer's disease eventually face the challenge of having to learn their way around unfamiliar environments when moving into assisted living or care-homes. People with Alzheimer's disease would...

We present two experiments investigating how navigators deal with ambiguous landmark information when learning unfamiliar routes. In the experiments we presented landmark objects repeatedly along a route, which allowed us to manipulate how informative single landmarks were (1) about the navigators' location along the route and (2) about the action...

Objectives A modified e‐Delphi was used to explore subject‐expert consensus to create a minimum & gold standard assessment for young‐onset dementia (YOD) for clinicians based in Australia. Methods A list of 72 statements adapted from an international study, O'Malley et al. 2020, was included in an online survey that was distributed to clinical exp...

In September 2020, a University of Northampton (UK) team, led by Professor Parkes and Dr Mary O’Malley (now at the University of Worcester) were successful in securing funding from the Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fund. The central aims of the DEfIN-YD project were to share knowledge about young onset dementia (YOD) research; create a younger o...

Objectives:We aimed to understand the facilitators to developing and sustaining high-quality services for people with young onset dementia (YOD) and their families/supporters. Design:This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with commissioners and service managers, analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Setting:A purposive sample...

Evidence on post-diagnostic support for people with young onset dementia is scarce. Previous studies have employed a problem-focused approach; however, evidence on ‘what works’ in real-life practice is essential to develop recommendations for service design and delivery. This study aimed to provide insight into ‘what works’ from the perspectives of...

Including the ‘voices’ of people living with dementia in a meaningful way is pivotal in shaping local, national and international health and social dementia care research. The Alzheimer’s Society (United Kingdom) funded Angela Project (2016–19) was aimed at improving the diagnosis and post-diagnostic support for younger people living with dementia....

Objectives To examine current UK practice in diagnosis of patients under 65 with young onset dementia, within 5 years of date of diagnosis, identified from electronic health records of 8 NHS mental health trusts. Methods Patients diagnosed with young onset dementia were assembled from the UK-Clinical Record Interactive System, (UK-CRIS) using diag...

There is a significant lack of evidence regarding optimum models for service provision in young onset dementia (YOD). Our study aim was to gather detailed information about services experienced as helpful by those with YOD and family carers. The objective was to identify the core features of these services to inform service design, delivery and imp...

Background The presentation of dementia in young people is complex and challenging, often resulting in delays in receiving a confirmed diagnosis and appropriate support. A recent Delphi consensus has derived minimum and gold standards for the diagnostic workup that international expert clinicians consider best practice. This presentation will revie...

Introduction: Better understanding of patient experience is an important driver for service improvements and can act as a lever for system change. In the United Kingdom, the patient experience is now a central issue for the National Health Service Commissioning Board, clinical commissioning groups and the providers they commission from. Traditiona...

Objectives: Young onset dementia is associated with distinctive support needs but existing research on service provision has been largely small scale and qualitative. Our objective was to explore service use, cost and satisfaction across the UK. Methods: Information about socio-demographic characteristics, service use and satisfaction were gathe...

Ensuring that environments are designed to cater for those with decreasing orientation, perceptual and mobility skills, is an example of how environments are being changed to become more age and dementia friendly. However, environmental design should directly involve potential users of the environment to ensure that their views are accounted for. F...

Objective To develop guidance for clinicians about essential elements that can support clinical decision‐making in the diagnostic workup of young onset dementia. Methods/Design Three iterations of a modified e‐Delphi consensus survey comprising 23 international expert clinicians specialising in diagnosis of young onset dementia. Outcome measures...

Objectives: Studies on service needs of people with young onset dementia have taken a problem-oriented approach with resulting recommendations focusing on reducing service shortcomings. This study aimed to build on ‘what works’ in real-life practice by exploring the nature of post-diagnostic support services that were perceived positively by younge...

Younger people living with dementia have been actively engaged in challenging society’s attitude to dementia. Despite their increased visibility though, there are substantial obstacles for younger people living with dementia in receiving a timely and accurate diagnosis and gaining access to appropriate support. Keith Oliver has been an active membe...

Objectives: Personal experiences of receiving a diagnosis of young onset dementia (YOD) are often overlooked in a complex assessment process requiring substantial investigation. A thematic synthesis of published until November 2018 qualitative studies was completed to understand the lived experiences of younger people. This informed a Delphi study...

Background Routine psychiatric assessments tailored to older patients are often insufficient to identify the complexity of presentation in younger patients with dementia. Significant overlap between psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative disease means that high rates of prior incorrect psychiatric diagnosis are common. Long delays to diagnosis...

Research into the effects of cognitive aging on route navigation usually focuses on differences in learning performance. In contrast, we investigated age-related differences in route knowledge after successful route learning. One young and two groups of older adults categorized using different cut-off scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (Mo...