The ground-breaking Join Dementia Research service celebrates its fifth birthday today with a brand new recruitment campaign.
Join Dementia Research is helping to make vital research happen. Since 2015, more than 45,000 people from across the UK have registered with the service, which matches volunteers with researchers looking for people to take part in their studies.
There has been significant success: as of February 2020, dementia studies have filled over 25,000 study places using the register - 27,807 in total. This includes drug studies, such as the ENGAGE study investigating whether Aducanumab may help slow Alzheimer’s disease, but also online studies like the Lifebrain Global Brain Health survey, which has already found more than 4,000 UK participants since its opening on Join Dementia Research in January 2020, and is still looking for more people.
These successes are just two that have been achieved since Join Dementia Research was established. It is delivered by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and the Alzheimer’s Society.
But with over a million people forecast to have dementia by 2025, researchers need even more volunteers to join their studies. In the UK alone, 34.5 million people have a friend or family member with dementia, and will have seen the impact dementia has on the people they love.
So to mark their 5th anniversary on 24 February, Join Dementia Research has launched a birthday card campaign. All this week, they are asking people to send a card to someone they know who might be interested in research.
To send a card, you can:
- Share this link: bit.ly/JDRcard
- Download and print a copy from the website: bit.ly/printJDRcard
- Share the pinned Tweet on Twitter @beatdementia
- Share the pinned post at facebook.com/joindementiaresearch
The campaign, which mimics the classic war-time campaigns of old, is a call-to-arms for people to give their time to help one of the UK’s most pressing areas of healthcare. People of the UK: dementia research needs you!
Professor Martin Rossor - NIHR National Director for Dementia Research, said:
“I am very proud to see Join Dementia Research celebrate its 5th birthday. Although still young, it has already had a lot of success - making it easier for people to take part in research. The majority of the 27,807 study participants would not have had the opportunity to engage in research if it wasn’t for Join Dementia Research. I am very grateful to all those who have registered so far.
“However we cannot rest on this success. If we want to continue to make a difference, beyond our 6th, 7th, or even 10th birthdays, we need more people to get involved. That’s why we’re asking everyone to tell at least one other person about the opportunity to take part in research. The more people who register with Join Dementia Research, the faster we can make a difference to the lives of everyone affected by dementia.”
Henry Simmons, Chief Executive of Alzheimer Scotland, added:
“Join Dementia Research has made great strides in supporting dementia research over the past five years. We wish to extend our congratulations to all those researchers, partners and champions for bringing dementia research to the public at large, but most of all a thank you to the many thousands of people who have registered to take part in vital dementia research.
“Research is essential to develop our understanding of dementia prevention, how to improve the quality of life of those living with the illness and will ultimately help to find a cure. We are delighted to be a partner in Join Dementia Research and we look forward to continuing to play a crucial role in supporting potential breakthroughs and advancing dementia care and treatment.”