Rate My Professor Miguel Da Silva

Dr. Miguel Da Silva serves as Associate Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing within the School of Academic Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. He holds a nursing degree from the University of Madeira and gained practical experience working in care homes and the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit at King’s College Hospital, where he honed his skills in supporting older adults and those with dementia. Since 2014, he has contributed extensively to dementia research at King's College London, holding positions such as Research Nurse and Dementia Theme Manager in the Department of Old Age Psychiatry. In July 2024, he completed his PhD at the University of Exeter in collaboration with King's College London. He is affiliated with the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. As Co-Director of the Care Home Research Network and a key member of the Community Ageing Research Across Ethnicities Network, he has played a pivotal role in facilitating research in care home settings and promoting inclusivity in studies on neuropsychiatric symptoms among older adults.

His research focuses on dementia clinical trials involving older adults in care homes, neuropsychiatric symptoms particularly apathy, and clinicogenomic examinations of apathy and depression in dementia patients and healthy older adults. He is a co-investigator on the NIHR-funded project REducing and preventing COgnitive impairment iN older age groups (RECON), running from 2017 to 2027. Key publications include 'A data-driven examination of apathy and depressive symptoms in people with dementia and healthy older adults' (2023), 'A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Digital Adaptation of the WHELD Person-Centered Nursing Home Training Program' (2022, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association), 'Investigating the effects of impairment in non-verbal communication on neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life of people living with dementia' (2021, Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions), 'Pandemic impact in care homes: Care homes perspectives' (2021), 'Healthcare utilisation and physical activities for older adults with comorbidities in the UK during COVID-19' (2021, Health and Social Care in the Community), 'Loneliness, physical activity and mental health during Covid-19' (2020, International Psychogeriatrics), and 'Collecting self-report research data with people with dementia within care home clinical trials: Benefits, challenges and best practice' (2019, Dementia). His contributions have amassed over 350 citations, advancing understanding and practices in dementia care.