Reframing Dementia, Distress and Inpatient Care

Join us at the University of West London on May 14, 2026, at 6:00 PM for an inspiring talk from Professor Emma Wolverson. Professor of Ageing and Dementia at the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory.

As a clinical academic, my programme of research challenges negative perceptions of dementia by focusing on people’s strengths and by supporting the clinical teams who care for them. My goal is to empower teams to develop and deliver evidence-based care to improve experiences and outcomes for people living with dementia and their families, enabling health and social care professionals to respond to an individual’s needs with skill and empathy. My research programme draws on positive psychology to deliver this evidence. Building on these foundations, my current National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research programme focuses on the dementia crisis – particularly when a crisis leads to an emergency admission within an inpatient mental health ward, a setting which cares for the most unwell, vulnerable, and high-risk people living with dementia. Being admitted can be frightening and overwhelming for both the person and their family. Stays are often long, and many people do not return home afterwards.

Inpatient mental health wards for people living with dementia are an invisible and highly stigmatised setting where research has historically been absent, and where the evidence base for high-quality care is lacking. In response, my research is working directly with families and frontline clinical teams in these under-resourced ward settings to transform cultures of care and to improve safety and well-being during and following a crisis.

This forms the basis of my distinctive body of work, which seeks to understand dementia through a lens of hope and possibility and, in so doing, drive practical, evidence-based care in health and social care settings where it is most needed.

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