Collaborative Development Network
A revolutionary project being launched in the North East aims to help shape the long-term provision of health and social care services for the benefit of older people.
The Collaborative Development Network is being pioneered by Northumbria University and will build on a 25-year study into the wellbeing of a group of pensioners from the North East who are now in their 80s.
It has been awarded £50,000 by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council initiative and is designed to build on research focused on some of the major issues affecting older people.
Professor Charlotte Clarke, associate dean of the School of Health, Community and Education Studies at Northumbria, said: "Society today is often guilty of focusing on older people as a problem, instead of concentrating on what people can offer to society and how to develop ways of managing. This exciting new Network is taking a completely different approach by identifying those aspects of the social, psychological and physical environment that enable an older person to use their own skills and abilities to the best effect."
Prof Clarke is working with a team of experts on the project and believes that by taking a holistic approach to the research the outcome will provide huge benefits to older people in the future.
She said: "We believe the Network will both inform and support individuals, policy makers and healthcare professionals to ensure the UK is able to provide the very best support for older people in the future."
The Collaborative Development Network will involve health, social science, psychology and mathematics experts from Northumbria, as well as academics from Newcastle University.
The Network will build on three key platforms including work by the British Academy International Research Network on risk and ageing, the UKCRC Centre for Translational Research in Public Health and comprehensive data collated by North East Age Research, from a cohort of older people, as part of a study which started 25 years ago.
Dr Lynn McInnes is the coordinator of the 25 year study. She said: "The original research actually started back in the 1980s when we wanted to examine what happens to people's cognitive abilities as they get older. We discovered that age has little bearing on cognitive performance and there's great variability amongst older people.
"However, we also discovered that older people felt good cognitive performance helped enhance their quality of life and that having better cognitive abilities was intrinsically linked to better health in general."
