Dawn Brooker
British clinical psychologist (born 1959)
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Through Dementia
Education
Brooker received a BSc (Hons) in psychology from the University of Birmingham in 1981 and an MSc in clinical psychology in 1984, when she qualified as a clinical psychologist. She became interested in dementia because of her personal experiences, having grown up with a grandfather with dementia.
She worked in clinical and managerial posts in the National Health Service for 17 years before moving into academia in 1999. She first heard Tom Kitwood, a pioneer in dementia care who would eventually become her doctoral supervisor, speak at a conference in 1988. She completed her PhD at Birmingham in 1998. Her doctoral research focused on improving the quality of care for people with dementia.
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Research and career
In 2005, Brooker was awarded a personal chair at the University of Bradford, where she continued Kitwood's work on person-centred dementia care.
In 2009, Brooker founded the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester and became its founding director.
Brooker developed the VIPS framework for person-centred dementia care, which underpins the Care Fit for VIPS online toolkit.
In 2021, she led a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded study examining the sustainability of community-based Meeting Centres for people affected by dementia in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Powys.
Brooker retired as director of the Association for Dementia Studies in March 2022 and continued as Professor Emeritus at the university.
Brooker is also co-editor, with Keith Oliver, of Open University Press's Reconsidering Dementia book series.