Barchester sponsors Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Awareness Conference

Barchester Healthcare is proud to be the headline sponsor for Alzheimer Scotland’s Annual Conference in Edinburgh, which will gather leading thinkers and world dementia experts to share best practice, insights and their latest findings at Edinburgh at the EICC on 3^rd June.

A strong line up for the day includes speakers from Scotland, the UK and across the world, such as Kate Swaffer from Alzheimer Australia, Professor Huali Wang from Peking University and Dr G. Allen Power from the University of Rochester, USA.

As well as high-profile speakers, the conference offers delegates the chance to network, access a dynamic exhibition hall, take part in debates and listen to live ‘soap box’ demonstrations from innovation groups developing non pharmacological therapeutic interventions.

At Barchester Healthcare many of our homes provide specialised dementia care within their Memory Lane Communities and our highly skilled team of dementia experts work hard to ensure the care provided is based on the latest research and is of the highest quality.  

Caroline Baker, Director of Dementia at Barchester Healthcare said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring this year’s Alzheimer Scotland conference, as it’s by sharing knowledge, ideas and research findings, that we will make the biggest difference to the lives of people living with dementia.

“I’m going to be attending the day and look forward to hearing from all the speakers, particularly Dr Allen Power, whose framework of well-being underpins the improvements we are making to our Memory Lane model of dementia care.”

Alzheimer Scotland’s 2016 National Conference is for everyone interested in or affected by dementia. The conference is designed for people living with a dementia diagnosis, their carers and family, through to health and care professionals, researchers, care home staff and students.

Visit www.alzscot.org/conference16 for full programme details.

Key themes of the 2016 Annual Conference:

• Living beyond dementia - Kate Swaffer from Australia is a prominent dementia campaigner, author and blogger who is living with a Semantic Dementia diagnosis. Kate will share her perspective on how to live beyond dementia.  Having been diagnosed seven years ago in Australia Kate feels like she was told to ‘return home, acquaint herself with the aged care services (she was 50) and prepare her end of life affairs’. Instead Kate is reframing how we look at people with dementia. She's feisty, challenging and also funny and is even turning her hand to stand-up comedy to get her message out

• Dementia beyond drugs - Dr Al Power from America will share some amazing insights into the use of psychoactive drugs at home, in care homes and hospitals, in the treatment of people with dementia, and his passion to educate us to live beyond these drugs.

• Research - risk reduction and prevention - Prof Craig Ritchie, based at Edinburgh University, will discuss risk reduction and prevention and update on some of the incredible work being conducted in Scotland and across the world. What can we do to reduce risks and how do we decipher the risk reduction headlines? In this session Dr Louise Ritchie will also focus on working and dementia and how as a country we can adapt to enable people with a diagnosis to continue to work.

• Dementia Friendly Communities - Prof. Huali Wang from the Peking University Institute of Mental Health will discuss how China is turning to the community to help with challenges of mass migration from rural to urban environments. This section will also hear from both the Head of Alzheimer Disease International and Alzheimer Europe with insights into dementia friendly communities around the world and what we can learn.