Editorial Innovative practice editorial

The three articles in this issue of Innovative Practice are wide ranging and cover different aspects of support for people with dementia. The first article by the Scottish Dementia Working Group Research Sub-Group sets out some core principles for involving people with dementia in research. The Scottish Dementia Working Group (Undated) is one of the longest established user-controlled groups for people with dementia and campaigns against stigma and discrimination towards people with dementia and to improve services for them. Although there is much better awareness of the need to involve people with dementia in research and in service evaluation, as the wider literature on service user involvement tells us (Turner & Beresford, 2005), there also is a risk that research will replicate wider societal inequalities. The Scottish Dementia Working Group Research Sub-Group worked with researchers to develop a set of core principles for researchers working with people with dementia. However, these principles are equally applicable for anyone working with people with dementia in planning and developing services. They are an immensely practical set of principles and deserve to be used widely. There is an extensive literature on the challenges faced by family caregivers carin