Manchester Met joins €6.5m EU consortium
MANCHESTER Met research is leading the way in tackling the challenge of dementia, hearing and vision loss, and cognition impairment across Europe.
A European-wide consortium – one of the first projects in the European Commission Horizon 2020 research programme – will investigate the impact of these conditions in the elderly.
The five-year €6.5m project, SENSE-Cog, aims to examine this combined impact and develop new tools that could improve quality of life of patients and caregivers, and optimise health and social care services across Europe.
Dr Abebaw Yohannes, Reader in Physiotherapy, is leading SENSE-Cog research at Manchester Met.
Detection, diagnosis, intervention
He will be seeking to:
• To understand the links between hearing, vision, cognitive and emotional systems in various dimensions in elderly Europeans in different communities so as to promote early diagnosis, referral and develop interventions to improve care for elderly Europeans
• To improve the early detection and diagnosis of sensory, cognitive and emotional problems in older people through specially adapted assessment and e-health check tools
• To determine the effectiveness of a newly developed vision and hearing support intervention in improving quality of life and functional ability in people with dementia and their caregivers. In addition, he will be raising awareness and disseminating the findings that sensory health – hearing and vision – is a key feature of mental wellbeing of older people
He said: “Europe is faced with an ageing population and we want to be at the forefront of ensuring elderly people lives are as comfortable as possible and improve their quality of life, while equipping health and social care organisations with the right tools to tackle the challenges ahead.
Perfect storm
“The cumulative impact of dementia, sight and hearing loss, and depression is far greater than each on their own. We want to be able to improve the quality of life in these areas and provide health organisations across Europe with the insight they need to inform decisions around health and social care budgets.â€
This project is expected to produce new research, patentable materials and screening tools for vision, hearing and cognition impairment.
The project involves 17 European Union organisations, which includes universities, healthcare service providers, voluntary and non-voluntary organisations and industry.
The consortium is led by the University of Manchester and launched in February.