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Teaching Interests

Ruby's teaching interests include music and dementia, and singing for health and wellbeing. She provides workshops and talks on these subjects within the University and externally. She is also experienced in teaching within Primary, Secondary and Further education, including as an undergraduate lecturer in music and academic skills, and as a Singing for the Brain leader trainer with the Alzheimer’s Society.

Research Interests

Ruby is interested in holistic approaches to research and to understanding the relationships between, and working with, music/arts and people, particularly those living with dementia.

Between 2016 – 2021, she conducted a doctoral research project exploring music with people with dementia who are living at home and the people who care for them, called:

Flourishing through Music: Understanding, Promoting and Supporting Musical Activity Shared within the Caring Relationships of People with Dementia Living at Home. (2016-20), Alzheimer’s Society.

For this project, she engaged in a process of ‘gentle empiricism’; a method for the study of living processes that is attributed to Goethe.

The project was supervised by Professor Eleanor Bradley at the ¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Theresa Mitchell at the ¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Dr Claire Garabedian and Professor Amanda Griffiths at the University of Nottingham. The research was conducted within the TAnDem Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), a collaborative partnership between the Universities of Worcester and Nottingham, funded by The Alzheimer’s Society.

Recent Publications

Morton, T., Evans, S. B., Swift, R., Bray, J., Frost, F., Russell, C., Brooker, D., Wong, G., & Hullah, N. (2024). Strategic and operational issues in sustaining community-based dementia support groups: the Get Real with Meeting Centres realist evaluation part 2. Aging & mental health, 1–9. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2024.2372058

Morton, T., Evans, S. B., Swift, R., Bray, J., Frost, F., Russell, C., Brooker, D., Wong, G., & Hullah, N. (2024). Reaching people and managing membership in community-based dementia support groups: the Get Real with Meeting Centres realist evaluation part 1. Aging & mental health, 1–9. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2024.2356885

Morton, T., Evans, S., Swift, R., Bray, J. and Frost, F. (2023) The legacy of COVID-19 in dementia community support: ongoing impacts on the running of meeting centres, Working with Older People, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/WWOP-03-2023-0006

Morton, T., Swift, R., Evans, S.B., Bray, J., Frost, F. & Wong, G. (2023). What you can do to help your Meeting Centre: Suggestions for people who attend Meeting Centres. ¹ú²úÊÓƵ ISBN 978-0-903607-42-1

Morton, T., Swift, R., Evans, S.B., Bray, J., Frost, F. & Wong, G. (2023). Keeping Meeting Centres going long term: Recommendations for people running Meeting Centres. ¹ú²úÊÓƵ ISBN 978-0-903607-43-8

Morton, T., Swift, R., Evans, S.B., Bray, J., Frost, F. & Wong, G. (2023). Sustaining Meeting Centres and similar community-led dementia support: Suggestions for health and care professionals. ¹ú²úÊÓƵ ISBN 978-0-903607-44-5

Swift, R. (July 2023) Oral Presentation: What we learnt about barriers to accessing Meeting Centres. The Get Real with Meeting Centres Celebration Event, University of Nottingham, UK.

Swift, R., Evans, S.B., Morton, T., Bray, J., & Atkins, J. (2023). Report: Get Real with Meeting Centres: Demographic Profile. ¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Available: https://scidemreview.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/demographic-report-final-updated-310723.pdf?force_download=true

Swift, R., Evans, S.B., Morton, T., Bray, J., & Atkins, J. (2023). Report: Get Real with Meeting Centres: Herefordshire and Worcestershire Meeting Centres:
barriers to attendance and recommendations for how to
address them. ¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Available: https://scidemreview.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/interview-report-final-updated-310723.pdf?force_download=true

Association for Dementia Studies (2023) Get Real with Meeting Centres Video Series. Available: https://scidemreview.wordpress.com/

Swift, R. (April 2023) Presentation: Update on UK Meeting Centres. Older Adult Mental Health DCC Business Meeting, online.

Swift, R. (February 2023) Presentation: Update on UK Meeting Centres. Early Intervention Dementia Service Business Meeting, online.

Swift, R. (October 2022) Webinar: Get Real with Meeting Centres research project: Work Package 5. Online.

Swift, R. (2021) Flourishing through Music: Understanding, Promoting and Supporting Musical Activity Shared within the Caring Relationships of People with Dementia Living at Home, PhD Thesis, Worcester University, Worcester.

Swift, R. and Gray, K. (2020) Arts and dementia: shaping the future. The Journal of Dementia Care, 28(6), pp. 19-20.

Gray, K., Swift, R. and Brooker, D. (2020) The Arts and Dementia: Shaping the Future. Worcester: Association for Dementia Studies.

Swift, R., Coaten, R., Dowson, R., Prytherch, D., Sutcliffe, R. and Whitmore, R (2020). Creative & Sensory Activities for people and families affected by dementia: Booklet 1. Available: /documents/TAnDem-Creative-and-Sensory-Activities-Booklet-1.pdf