A new paper describes the Theory of Change (ToC) approach used by the STRiDE Project to co-design our research project and to develop a strategic direction for dementia care, treatment and support, with stakeholders. The paper was written by a number of STRiDE colleagues led by Erica Breuer and published in the journal Dementia today.

ToC makes explicit the process underlying how a programme will achieve its impact. In the STRiDE Project, we developed ToCs in each of the seven STRiDE countries and across the STRiDE project with researchers, practitioners, people living with dementia, carers and policymakers at different levels of government. This involved (1) an initial ToC workshop with all project partners (43 participants); (2) ToC workshops in each STRiDE country (22–49 participants in each); (3) comparison between country-specific and overall project ToCs; (4) review of ToCs in light of WHO dementia guidelines and action plan and (5) a final review.

The paper concludes that the STRiDE team’s experiences suggest ToC is an effective way to generate a shared vision for dementia care, treatment and support among diverse stakeholders, but that the project contribution should be clearly delineated and use additional strategies to ensure appropriate participation from people living with dementia and their carers in the ToC process.

Full paper: