Website Queen's University Belfast
Closing date: 22nd January
Queen’s University Belfast offers a funded PhD exploring how to support medicines use for ageing adults with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia.
Supporting medicines use in ageing adults with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia: A multi-method project to inform intervention development and future implementation
Institution: Queen’s University Belfast, School of Pharmacy
Supervisor: Dr Heather Barry
Application deadline: Friday, January 22, 2027
Funding type: Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Location: Belfast, United Kingdom
Subject area: Pharmacy
About the Project
People with intellectual disabilities are living longer and increasingly experiencing age-related health conditions, including dementia. As they age, many experience multimorbidity, polypharmacy and increasingly complex medication regimens. The development of dementia can introduce additional challenges, including cognitive and functional decline, communication difficulties, changing capacity for involvement in medication-related decisions, and increasing reliance on family members or paid carers to support medicines use. Despite this complexity, relatively little is known about how dementia influences medicines use and medication management specifically among people with intellectual disabilities, or how healthcare and support services can best respond to their changing needs.
This three-year PhD will address this important gap by exploring the medication-related experiences, challenges and support needs of ageing adults with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia. The project will consider medicines use from multiple perspectives, including those of people with intellectual disabilities and dementia, family and paid carers, and healthcare professionals, with a strong emphasis on accessible, inclusive and person-centred research.
The PhD will comprise four interlinked studies. First, a scoping review will map existing evidence on medicines use, medication management and medicines optimisation in this population and identify key evidence gaps. Second, qualitative research will explore experiences of managing medicines as dementia develops, including medication-related decision-making, changing support needs and experiences of medication review. Third, implementation science methods will be used to identify the individual, professional, organisational and service-level factors likely to influence how improved medicines support could be delivered and embedded within routine practice. Finally, stakeholders will participate in co-design and consensus work to develop an evidence-based intervention and accompanying implementation strategy.
Rather than testing an intervention within the PhD, the project will provide the evidence and theoretical foundations needed to develop an intervention that is responsive to the specific needs of this underserved population and designed with future implementation in mind. The resulting intervention will be positioned for subsequent feasibility testing and evaluation, creating a clear pathway from doctoral research towards future improvements in medicines support, service delivery and care for ageing adults with intellectual disabilities and dementia.
Training:
The successful candidate will receive interdisciplinary training in evidence synthesis, qualitative research, accessible and inclusive research methods, stakeholder engagement and co-design, intervention development and implementation science. Training will also encompass research ethics and governance, academic writing, publication, conference presentation and knowledge exchange. The student will benefit from complementary supervisory expertise spanning medicines optimisation, dementia, intellectual disability, ageing, health services research and implementation science.
The student will also develop broader transferable skills in project management, interdisciplinary working, critical appraisal and communicating research to academic, professional and public audiences.
Expected impact activities:
The student will work with people with intellectual disabilities, family and paid carers, healthcare professionals and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the research and intervention are grounded in real-world needs. Findings will be disseminated through accessible stakeholder outputs, peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences in pharmacy practice, health services research, ageing and implementation science. The intervention prototype and implementation strategy will underpin future external funding applications for feasibility testing and evaluation, providing a pathway towards longer-term impact on policy, practice and medicines support.
Funding Notes
The studentship will cover full tuition fees, a tax-free annual maintenance stipend of approx. £21,000, and a Research Training and Support grant of £900 per year for three-year full-time research degrees.
UK and ROI students; EU students; International students all eligible.
References
Intellectual disability; Dementia; Medicines optimisation; Ageing; Implementation science; Intervention development
To apply for this job please visit www.findaphd.com.
