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Dementia research and treatment boosted as unique collaboration announced

Professor Julian Hughes RICE

Press release issued: 6 July 2016

Internationally renowned Professor Julian Hughes is announced as the first RICE Professor of Old Age Psychiatry in a collaboration between The Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE), the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) and the University of Bristol.

In his new post Professor Hughes will work alongside Professor Roy Jones, Consultant Geriatrician and Director of RICE since it began in 1985, and help to develop research at RICE, looking at both cure and care in various conditions affecting older people.

The collaboration will bring together the independent research conducted at RICE with the Medical School community at the University of Bristol and the care of older people taking place within the RUH in Bath.

Dr Chris Dyer, RICE Chair of Trustees & Clinical Lead Older People's Unit Royal United Hospitals Bath, said: "Improving Dementia care and expanding research is a key aim for RICE, the RUH and the University of Bristol. This new Professorial post is a great opportunity to build on the research that has already been conducted at RICE, extend it into new and exciting areas and apply learning in clinical and care settings."

Professor Tim Peters, Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Bristol, added: "We are delighted at the prospect of Professor Julian Hughes joining the University in this new post, developing what we are very confident will be a successful and sustained collaboration with RICE and the RUH in Bath. This is an excellent example of partnership working to deliver first class research and health care for older people, especially those with dementia."

Professor Hughes was previously Honorary Professor of Philosophy of Ageing at the University of Newcastle and Consultant in the Psychiatry of Old Age Service of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. He has a wide range of interests to do with ageing and dementia, from studies of ethical issues for carers, to studies of pain and the effects of the arts on quality of life. He is currently involved in academic research examining palliative care in dementia.

Professor Hughes will take up his appointment on 1 August 2016 and will be based mainly at the RICE Centre on the RUH site in Bath.

Further information

About RICE
RICE is an independent registered charity committed to helping older people live better for longer. It is dedicated to conducting research into diseases of old age, especially dementia; providing support for people with the disease, along with their families and carers, and to improving the quality of life for everyone involved. RICE helps communities as a whole to mitigate the costs of caring for an increasingly aging population. It provides a contracted NHS Memory Clinics service for the Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) area, which helps the multi-disciplinary RICE team identify potential areas for research and recruit suitable participants for drug and non-drug research studies to both develop new treatments and inform best practice. The internationally renowned RICE Centre is a purpose built facility based at the Royal United Hospitals site since 2008 having previously been based at St Martin’s Hospital in Bath. In 2015 RICE embarked on an ambitious plan to significantly increase its clinical and academic research programme and strategic partnerships. 

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