You may have noticed that when you log into your account things look a little different. 

We have listened to your feedback and as part of a continuous process of development, we have made some changes to the volunteer page.

Some key changes and things to look out for are summarised below.

Key updates

When you log into your Join Dementia Research account you will now see the ‘Request a callback’ icon on the right-hand side. This is a relatively new feature which provides you with the opportunity to ask one of our charity helplines to call you back if you would like some help registering for a Join Dementia Research account, updating your profile or information about a study you have matched to. Callbacks will be made within ten working days and three attempts to contact will be made.

Regularly updating your profile is really important as accurate and up to date information helps to match you with the right opportunities to take part in research studies. When you log into your profile you will now be notified if you have not confirmed or updated your profile in the last twelve months. You will be prompted to confirm your details are correct by a yellow banner at the top of your profile.

You can also update your contact preference at any time, by clicking on the pink ‘Contact Preferences’ button. The preferences include: how researchers communicate with you, how and if you would like to receive our quarterly newsletter or annual survey and whether you want to receive study alerts.

We have heard from you that understanding which studies you have taken part in is really important and you will now be able to see which studies you have matched to, which studies you are taking part in and which ones you do not want to take part in. 

Taking part in research is optional and if you decide to not take part this will be shown on your profile. You will also be able to see the anonymous online studies which you have taken part in, the researcher may update your profile to reflect that you have taken part in the study. However, you can also do this yourself by selecting the ‘I have taken part in this study’ checkbox in the ‘studies you have matched to’ section.

You can also use a filter to view the studies to which you are matched, studies you are taking part in and studies which you do not want to take part in.

Lay summaries, which provide details on a particular study, what it means to take part, what’s involved and inclusion criteria are now called ‘study details’ and can be accessed by clicking on the study title.

Any studies which have opened in the last 28 days are labelled as ‘new’ and appear with a yellow tab in the corner.

If you are a representative for someone with dementia and also have your own profile you can move more easily between accounts. You can do this through the volunteer profile section, just click on the name of the person you would like to view and it will show you their profile.

You can also add details about how far you are willing to travel to take part in a research study and provide any additional information which may be useful to researchers.

More development in progress

We hope these changes will be beneficial to you and we look forward to sharing more progress soon.