Project description DEENESFRITPL Improving the socio-cultural participation and empowerment of people living with dementia People living with dementia face several obstacles to continued participation in the community, such as cognitive and behavioral changes, dementia-related stigma and social isolation. Especially people at the early stages of dementia often wish to contribute to the community and feel valued for it. To promote their empowerment and socio-cultural participation, the EU-funded IDoService project will develop a service to allow people living with dementia to plan, connect with and participate in tailored opportunities to realise themselves and continue to contribute to society and be fully part of it. Using a participatory co-design approach, we will work with people living with dementia, their families, carers and other stakeholders to develop and test the I-Do Service in Manchester, UK. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective This fellowship will co-develop, implement and evaluate the I-Do service to increase the socio-cultural participation and empowerment of people living with mild to moderate stages of dementia (PLWD) through an interdisciplinary engaged research approach that combines service design and psychology with a co-design methodology. This user-friendly service will allow PLWD to plan, connect with and participate in tailored opportunities to realise themselves and contribute to society. The fellowship will use a co-design approach (Niedderer et al. 2019), working with PLWD, their relatives/familial carers as well as relevant stakeholders. It will develop the service model, i.e. the principles for format, content and delivery of the I-Do service, which it will implement and evaluate through a pilot in the area of Manchester, UK. The I-Do service addresses a key need of PLWD to be able to contribute and to be valued for it: Tournier et al 2017 found that PLWD are looking for more self-determination, to conduct activities on their own, to continue to learn new things and to be creative as well as to feel useful to others. This corroborates an investigation by Schölzel-Dorenbos et al. (2010) on this understudied topic, which shows that social contact, attachment, being useful/giving meaning to life, enjoyment of activities, and self-determination and freedom are key aspects of unmet needs for PLWD. I-Do will address these unmet needs through its novel interdisciplinary engaged community approach to develop the understanding of relevant and appropriate services for PLWD and to support the realisation of local and national policies regarding dementia friendly communities in the UK. Fields of science social sciencespsychologymedical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologydementia Keywords dementia service design social inclusion empowerment Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator THE MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY Net EU contribution € 212 933,76 Address Oxford road all saints building M15 6BH Manchester United Kingdom See on map Region North West (England) Greater Manchester Manchester Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00