Mr Jotheeswaran A Thiyagarajan Msc (Psychiatric Research)
Hon.Research Fellow
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| contact this person | |
| tel | 020 7848 5074 |
| address | Institute of Psychiatry , H1.13,The David Goldberg Centre, Institute Of Psychiatry,King's College,London |
| location | H1.13 David Goldberg Centre |
| departments | Health Service and Population Research |
biography
Since 2004, I have been working on the 10/66 Dementia Research Group survey in Chennai, as a research worker and coordinator. I personally carried out many of the interviews – a representative sample of 1005 older adults at baseline, with a three year follow-up. From my experiences in the field, and my data analyses I learnt much about the lives of older people. I witnessed hardship, much of it linked to the effects of chronic diseases, disability and dependency - but also many examples of successful ageing. I am part of a research network with centres in China, Africa and Latin America, and have learnt about the different health systems, and the influences of culture on care arrangements. All of this has inspired my ambition to become a public mental health researcher, focusing on the health and social welfare of older people in India. With the support of my mentors (Prof.Martin Prince), I applied successfully for a Wellcome Trust Master’s level Training Fellowship. I attended the MSc in Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, acquiring some of the technical skills; research design, data management and analysis.Our paper on dementia prevalence in the 11 10/66 centres, including Chennai, was published in the Lancet. I presented data at conferences in India and overseas and won an ‘outstanding young researcher’ award from the Neurosciences India Group. Returning to India after the MSc, I had 18 months funding from the Wellcome Trust to follow-up those with dementia and cognitive impairment from the baseline survey. We aim to chart the progression of dementia, and to understand more about awareness among relatives of older peoples’ memory problems. I have written papers on the predictive validity of dementia diagnosis and the outcome of mild cognitive impairment (In PRESS). I want also to contribute to our broader understanding of chronic diseases among older people. I am working on a paper on the prevalence and treatment of chronic diseases in Chennai and Vellore. I surveyed mortality across the whole Chennai cohort, using the WHO verbal autopsy interview, and written papers on all cause and cause-specific mortality. While, from our data, dementia makes the largest contribution to disability, dependency and mortality, comorbidity between physical, mental and cognitive disorders is the defining pattern for older people. offlate I ahev also received WT/PHFI PhD fellowship and currently pursuing PhD at Institute of Psychiatry ,King’s College,London,UK .The 10/66 project, and WT-funded Centre of Excellence in Chronic Diseases, provide an ideal platform for me to pursue studies leading to community interventions. Studying a PhD at King’s College London, as part of the PHFI faculty under the supervision of Prof. Prince and Dr Williams from VHS, Chennai, would open the door to a career path, as a public mental health researcher focusing on the neglected topics of the health and social protection of older Indians.The 10/66 Dementia Research Group caregiver training and education intervention, ‘Helping Carers to Care’ has shown promising results. Dependency, a key public health outcome to which dementia makes an important contribution , may be a more appropriate target at primary care level. Packages of care could be constructed that address relevant impairments (mobility, behaviour, mood, nutrition, hydration, continence) horizontally across underlying health conditions (dementia, stroke, heart disease, Parkinson;s disease, arthritis). More research is needed at Phase 1 and Phase 2 levels to construct evidence-based packages of care that could then be evaluated in the public healthcare system in India. The effective dissemination of such research work can raise awareness and inform evidence-based policymaking and service development for older people with dementia and other disabling Chronic diseases in India. The development of this research agenda would be the focus for my PHFI/WT PhD fellowship.
last updated: Tuesday, March 30, 2010