" My research explored the population of people with dementia using therapeutic services in a smaller country and can be adopted to other similar countries to help them to understand and explore their population with dementia, their services as well as to identify gaps in their systems."
Sonal Samtani, recently completed their PhD exploring the sustainability of dementia care and the impact of therapeutic services for people with dementia in terms of their cognition, function and quality of life.
Being originally from Gibraltar, I chose the University of Gibraltar because it would be both rewarding and familiar. I knew how the healthcare system worked and the avenues of research I wanted to explore with the experience I already had in my job.
Gibraltar is a beautifully cozy location for a PhD, you don’t feel as lonely in your research as you are constantly surrounded by friends and colleagues in a similar position. The university is in a convenient location, and university staff are easily accessible and approachable when you need to talk to them.
Although the university is relatively small, it does compensate in terms of being more personal and offering student advice and support. I always felt that I could speak to someone about every obstacle that came my way and although two of my supervisors were in Edinburgh, there were occasions where they would come to Gibraltar so that we could meet in person and overcome challenging parts of the research together.
My research explored the sustainability of dementia care and the impact of therapeutic services for people with dementia in terms of their cognition, function and quality of life.
If you compare studying in Gibraltar with studying in the UK, it’s completely different. In the UK, my classes were huge; at least 150 people in each class. Which meant that we did never really get to know the professors, and also no one-to-one attention or not much help either from professors or advisors. At the University of Gibraltar, we have such small classes which allow us to have that special, more intensive interaction with professors and they are there to help with everything that you need. Definitely the relationship with the professors is much better here compared with the UK.
This research was a mixed methods project and so it involved both qualitative data collection and analysis using interviews and thematic analysis, as well as quantitative data collection and analysis using surveys and psychometric scales, descriptive and inferential statistics.
Ageing affects us all and it is also a large risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. By having more information and data on the most useful therapeutic interventions we can not only help people with dementia maintain their independence and remain in the community for longer, but also learn where to best focus our healthcare resources, emphasise early diagnosis and form a plan after a diagnosis.
My research explored the population of people with dementia using therapeutic services in a smaller country and can be adopted to other similar countries to help them to understand and explore their population with dementia, their services as well as to identify gaps in their systems.
I hope to teach about Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia to healthcare programs at the University, as well as teach mixed methods research as this was not a common research design when I was undertaking my study and could be useful for new students.
Upcoming publications include the literature review from my thesis and the results of the study.
Our PhD by research programme is based on independent study, guided by your assigned supervisors and support system. It typically [...]
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