People with dementia have often played a passive role in the investigation of their condition. The contributors to this book look at ways of redressing the balance and involving them in the research process. They describe the skills that researchers and care staff need, and the methods they can use, when seeking to draw out and validate the views of people with dementia successfully, and discuss the ways in which such views can be included in debates about dementia methodology and policy.

The book focuses on a number of projects which have taken different approaches to working with people with dementia in research, including a chapter examining the difficult process of interviewing people with dementia whose first language is not English and a chapter describing a project which encourages people with dementia to participate in the analysis of the research findings. This varied and innovative book will help those in the fields of health and social policy, dementia research and dementia care to hear the voices of people with dementia more clearly, and to include their opinions more effectively in the provision of services.

Contributions by: Murna Downs, Errollyn Bruce, Charlotte L. Clarke, Alison Bowes