Dr Megan Davies is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia under NIHR DEM-COMM. Megan’s research focuses on improving quality of life, meaningful engagement, and person-centred care for older adults living in care homes, particularly people living with dementia.

Prior to the DEM-COMM Fellowship, Megan worked as a Senior Research Associate on the Care Home Activity Providers facilitating Public Involvement in research as meaningful activity for care home residents (CHAPPI) project, and as a Research Collaborator with the University of Basel, where she led an international collaboration, which re-imagined person-centred care frameworks considering cross-cultural perspectives.

Megan completed her PhD ‘Tri-National Ethnographic Multi-Case Study of Quality of Life in Long-Term Residential Care’ (TRIANGLE) at the University of Basel and Maastricht University as part of a TRANS-SENIOR project in 2023. During her PhD, Megan undertook three rapid-ethnographic studies in long-term residential care homes in Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands, to explore person-centred practices in each of the three homes and how this impacted resident quality of life, with a focus on resident experiences, putting their voices at the forefront. Megan has a Master’s degree in Applied Sports and Exercise Science, where she investigated the impact of neuropsychiatric behavioural symptoms in people living with dementia.

Megan’s current work explores how person-centred activities can be implemented in long-term care, to assist with rehabilitation for people living in care homes, including for those with dementia. Megan hopes to understand how we can work with care home residents and staff to individualise activities in line with resident wishes and needs to maintain/improve/recover physical and cognitive function.