This research project focuses on how person-centred, non-pharmacological approaches to care are valued in dementia and a contingent valuation approach will be used to examine preferences and values from citizens with respect to alternative types of care. The research also involves creating a taxonomy of psychosocial supports in dementia care in Ireland, including the evaluation of a number of psychosocial interventions including Alzheimer Cafés.

This research programme focuses on the economic, social, health and emotional costs of caring for people with dementia. The research will provide longitudinal estimates of the relationships between informal care costs and cognitive function, comorbidities and behavioural changes in people with dementia, including an exploration of the potential of psychosocial interventions and technology-based interventions for care-givers to ameliorate the potential burden of care.

Resource allocation decision-making in dementia in Ireland is often characterised as being narrow, implicit and provider-driven, with little knowledge about how priorities are set and addressed, and to what effect. The absence of people with dementia from the decision-making process does much to undermine personhood and citizenship within dementia in Ireland.

Dementia is a costly condition and one that differs from other conditions in the significant cost burden placed on informal caregivers. The aim of this analysis was to estimate the economic and social costs of dementia in Ireland in 2010. With an estimate of 41,470 people with dementia, the total baseline annual cost was found to be over €1.69 billion, 48% of which was attributable to the opportunity cost of informal care provided by family and friends and 43% to residential care.