Professor Julian C. Hughes

Individual Partner: Professor Julian C. Hughes

Preferred contact: julian.hughes@ncl.ac.uk

Key Words: Ageing, Alzheimer’s disease, authenticity, best interests, capacity, decision-making, dementia, mental health law, old age psychiatry, palliative care

Resident in: UK

Working in: UK

Area(s) of Interest in VBP: Publications/CUP series, Publications/other/various publications in connection with VBP, Research/other/clinical, Services/person-centered, Services/teamwork

Related Area(s) of Interest: Communication skills, Ethics/capacity, Medical humanities/ literature, music, Law, Research/aging

Area(s) of healthcare expertise: Mental health/General, Mental health/other/Old Age Psychiatry/Dementia, Other/palliative care

Brief Description of Work:

Julian’s research is in the fields of ethics and philosophy in connection with dementia and ageing. He has written about VBP in connection with ethics and old age psychiatry and in connection with capacity legislation. He co-supervised Dr Katie Frew’s PhD looking at the use of sedation in palliative care, which drew on VBP in its conclusions. Julian helped to gain funding for a further PhD being undertaken by Dr. Luke Martin at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, through the PEALS Research Centre of Newcastle University, on VBP in acute medicine.

Julian was formerly Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Bristol and Honorary Professor of Philosophy of Ageing at Newcastle University. He remains an honorary professor at Bristol and visiting professor at PEALS in Newcastle.

In February 2019, Julian and Toby Williamson had published by Cambridge University Press The Dementia Manifesto: Putting Values-Based Practice to Work. See: https://www.dementiaaction.org.uk/news/29789_the_dementia_manifesto_a_revolution_in_how_dementia_is_understood