Meaningful activities for improving the wellbeing of people with dementia: Beyond mere pleasure to meeting fundamental psychological needs

Aims: Dementia is being increasingly recognised as a major public health issue for our ageing populations. A critical aspect of supporting people with dementia is facilitating their participation in meaningful activities. However, research to date has not drawn on theories of ageing from developmental psychology that would help undergird the importance of such meaningful activity. For the first time, we connect existing activity provision for people with dementia with developmental psychology theories of ageing. Method: We reviewed the literature in two stages: First, we narratively searched the literature to demonstrate the relevance of psychological theories of ageing for provision of meaningful activities for people with dementia, and in particular focused on the stage-based theories of adult development (Carl Jung and Erik Erikson), gerotranscendence (Tornstam), selective optimisation with compensation (Baltes and Baltes), and optimisation in primary and secondary control (Heckhausen and Schulz). Second, we systematically searched PubMed and PsycINFO for studies with people with dementia that made use of the aforementioned theories. Results: The narrative review highlights that activity provision for people with dementia goes beyond mere pleasure to meeting fundamental psychological needs. More specifically, that: life review therapy and life story work addresses the need for life review; spiritual / religious activities addresses the need for death preparation; intergenerational activities addresses the need for intergenerational relationships; re-acquaintance with previously-conducted leisure activities addresses the need for a sense of control and to achieve life goals; and pursuit of new leisure activities addresses the need to be creative. The systematic searches identified two studies that demonstrated the utility of applying Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development to dementia care. Conclusions: We argue for the importance of activity provision for people with dementia to help promote wellbeing amongst an increasing proportion of older people

Co-production in mental health research: Reflections from the People Study

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the process of co-producing mental health research where work was shared between university academics, charity-based researchers and a Lived Experience Advisory Panel. Design/methodology/approach - The authors express the opinions of a research team made up of people with experience of using mental health services, being carers and being academically trained researchers from a range of health and social science disciplines. Some had experience in several areas. The paper is co-produced to provide collective reflection and recommendations. Findings - Co-production of research is not well documented in published literature. The authors believe there is scope to develop co-production approaches, but further conceptual and theoretical work is needed alongside empirical studies. A socially situated complex research project, possibly involving multi-stakeholder groups, demands flexibility in approach. Similarly to user-controlled and other emancipatory methodologies, co-production makes the democratisation of research a primary objective in order to produce better quality and more relevant studies. Co-production also addresses inequalities in power and control within research projects; this way of working does provide a healthy challenge to traditional research hierarchies. Practical implications - Lessons learned should be honestly shared to develop co-production research methods. Projects need to have a strategy for how to value different contributions and facilitate constructive relationships if discord emerges. Establishing clear project roles, expectations and process for payment are essential in developing genuine collaborative partnerships. Originality/value - It is a viewpoint paper