Team biographies of HammondCare and the Dementia Centre Image Dr Julie Christie Region Manager UK and Europe Julie has experience of working with people living with dementia as a nurse, social worker and social work manager; and has a PhD in the subject of resilience and dementia. She has worked across a range of settings, including integrated health and social care, residential, care home and hospital sites, and has extensive knowledge on co-production, assessment, risk enablement, self-directed support, and issues of support and protection. Julie was an associate with the Dementia Centre at the University of Stirling for 10 years and has published work on ethical practice in research, acute hospital care and forthcoming work on resilience in the context of dementia. She is a member of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium, the ‘Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia’ group (University of Edinburgh), and the ‘Citizenship and Dementia International Research Forum’. Julie is Adjunct Lecturer at the University of New South Wales and a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Edinburgh. Julie’s work is focused around citizenship, co-production, and issues that impact on recognition including emerging issues on digital citizenship in the context of dementia. Julie is co-founder of the dementia PhD twitter community #demphd which has created a social media space for people with dementia, researchers and those interested in dementia. Julie has also been working on exciting virtual reality applications that assist in our understanding of the experience of dementia. Julie is currently working on a practice framework that enables social workers to recognise the resilience of the person living with dementia and related publications in this area. Image Oonagh Thompson-Bradley Senior Project Officer UK and Europe Oonagh is an experienced researcher and project manager, having worked for over ten years on ageing and dementia projects, primarily in Northern Ireland. Before joining the Dementia Centre, Oonagh led the Northern Ireland Hospice’s Dementia Collaboration to develop an innovative, collaborative model of dementia care and support, aimed at improving the lives of people with dementia, their families and carers in the community. From 2007-2010, she worked to establish and develop the Northern Ireland office of the Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling. Oonagh holds an MPhil from Queen’s University Belfast through which she explored the scope of smartphone-based puzzle games to maintain cognitive health in ageing. In 2011, she spent six months as a Marie Curie early stage researcher with a home care provider in Athens, Greece on a European Commission project (Value Ageing, www.valueageing.eu), researching issues around consent of older people living with support and the ethical implications of eHealth/telemedicine. Oonagh has had the privilege to present, both locally and overseas, and has authored and co-authored several publications. Outwith the ageing sector, Oonagh has conducted and managed research within primary and secondary education and on advocacy and resilience within the victims and survivors sector in Northern Ireland. Image Dr Natalie Yates-Bolton Natalie Yates-Bolton has worked as a nurse in settings which have provided care and support for older people and people living with dementia. This informed the focus of her Ph.D. study which explored how to enhance meaning and purpose in care home life. Natalie’s work is based on empowering and valuing the humanity of older people who require care and people who are living with dementia. These approaches were central to two European Union funded education projects that Natalie co-led: HUROPEL (Human rights: older people and end of life) and POSaDEM (Positive about dementia). Natalie has been awarded two Florence Nightingale Foundation scholarships: a travel scholarship to the USA to study non-pharmacological approaches to supporting people living with dementia and a leadership scholarship which included a placement with the leaders of HammondCare, Australia. Natalie has collaborated on research, education and knowledge transfer projects with people living with dementia, family carers, architects, designers, allied health professionals, lawyers, NHS hospitals and care home providers. The focus of these projects has been to promote enabling interactions for people living with dementia, their family, carers and professional staff. Image Professor Mary Marshall Senior Consultant Mary Marshall is Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Emeritus at the University of Stirling. She has worked in dementia care for over thirty years. She was the director of the Dementia Services Development Centre at Stirling from 1998 – 2005 and she subsequently became a design associate until 2015 when she joined the Dementia Centre, Hammondcare as a senior consultant. Since retirement she has focused mainly on design. She is involved in consultancy, publishing, lecturing and research. Image David McNair Associate Consultant: Light & Lighting David is an experienced and enthusiastic chartered engineer who is an expert in all elements of interior and exterior lighting. In addition to having qualifications in management and economics, in a long and balanced career he has accumulated vast knowledge and experience in design, maintenance, material procurement, contracts, energy efficiency and education. He has lectured extensively on lighting design, the workings of the human visual system and the different impacts of light on the human body, particularly in the context of dementia environments. Image Annie Pollock Associate Consultant – Architect & Landscape Architect Annie Pollock worked as an architect for several years before undertaking further studies in landscape architecture. She set up her Edinburgh-based landscape practice, Arterre, in 1987. Annie has specialised in designing outdoor spaces for older people and those with dementia. She has won several awards for her work, including a Royal Horticultural Show silver medal for the ‘Forget me not Garden’ for Alzheimer Scotland and Action on Dementia, (Strathclyde Country Park 1999); a BALI award (British Association of Landscape Industries) for the courtyard garden at the Iris Murdoch Building (University of Stirling 2003) and a BURA commended award (British Urban Regeneration Association) for Dumbiedykes Estate regeneration (Edinburgh 2008). Annie spoke at a HammondCare conference in Sydney, Australia in 2011 and has lectured widely on internal and external design for people with dementia. She has also provided consultancy and training services extensively throughout the UK and abroad for various bodies including Private Clients, Local Authorities, NHS trusts and Housing Associations. Annie has acted as author, contributor and editor of various articles and design guides. These include ‘Designing Gardens for People with Dementia’, ‘Air Quality and Health for People with Dementia’ and the ‘Design for People with Dementia Audit Tool’ – published by the University of Stirling in 2001, 2008 and 2015 respectively. She was also editor and contributor of ‘Designing Outdoor Spaces for People with Dementia’, published in 2012, jointly by the University of Stirling and HammondCare. Ricky Pollock Image Associate Consultant – Architect & Planner Richard (Ricky) Pollock formed the architectural and planning consultancy Burnett Pollock Associates with partner David Burnett in 1974. Since then, the Edinburgh-based practice has established both design and research expertise in sustainable development, specialised care accommodation, assistive technology for disabilities and dementia friendly design. Richard is currently a consultant to the newly formed practice, BPA Architecture. He was also the Director of Architecture at the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) at the University of Stirling from 2008 up until this year. Richard first demonstrated principles of design for people with dementia in the ‘St Leonard’s Initiative’ social housing project in Edinburgh for Places for People Housing Association in 1992 following a period of research into barrier free design started in 1987. This was followed by Richard’s involvement in several projects for Glasgow City Council to convert existing care homes with low environmental standards to be more ‘dementia friendly’ as part of the Social Work Department’s contribution towards Glasgow being designated ‘City of Architecture and Design’ in 1999. Since then, Richard has been the project architect responsible for three of the ‘Opening Doors for Older People’ projects undertaken by West Lothian Council in partnership with Bield Housing Association. His practice designed the model Iris Murdoch Building for the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling, which was completed in 2002. Richard has spoken at a Hammond conference in Sydney in 2011. He has lectured widely on accessibility issues and authored several research papers and design guides including writing ‘Designing Interiors for People with Dementia’ and contributing to ‘Designing Lighting for People with Dementia’ and the ‘Design for People with Dementia Audit Tool’ published by the University of Stirling in 2003, 2007 and 2008 respectively. Richard has also provided consultancy and training services to local authorities and NHS trusts extensively throughout the UK and abroad.
