The field of health and social care is constantly evolving and practice must change to
reflect both policy initiatives and the new insights into the lives of service users and their
family carers that research uncovers. Nowhere is this need more apparent than in dementia
care. Practitioners are expected to be ‘evidence-based’, but with the many competing
demands they face, they often struggle to find the latest evidence in a form that is accessible
and which highlights for them the practical value of research and theory. Texts which
reflect the appropriate balance between research, theory and practice are rare indeed.