The prevalence of dementia continues to be the major challenge of the 21st century and ‘is set to replace cancer as Britain’s biggest killer by 2040’, according to researchers from Kings College London.
To forward the agenda on dementia, Open Forum Events are pleased to bring you the very latest conference, Dementia Quality of Care: Personal-Accessible-Original, as part of its highly successful series of insightful meetings.
With no immediate cure on the horizon, the dementia conundrum is set to intensify. With a general increase in longevity, due to better survival rates in other life-threatening illnesses, it correlates that the number of people living with dementia will continue to rise. Latest predictions are that by 2040 the figure in England and Wales will rise to 1.2 million.
Whilst scientists work tirelessly to search for the elusive cure, support services must be able to meet the rising demands. Patients with dementia are firstly people, with the same basic human rights as everyone else. Care must be personal and designed around the person, guided by the choices that they and their families/carers express. To satisfy this, not only must the provision have depth and resource, it must be equitably accessible to all that need it. With much discussion and debate about the future of social care funding and the NHS budget under inordinate pressure, originality in service design and care management can pave the way to innovative practice and provide sustainability.
The Dementia Quality of Care: Personal-Accessible-Original conference is for those who live with, work with or are affected by dementia. Delegates will be updated on the latest developments as we look to improve care and support. Once again, Open Forum Events are delighted to bring you a line up of expert speakers and contributors, who will highlight the current situation and discuss the future outlook and aspirations. The opportunity to discuss, debate and exchange examples of best practice and innovations will provide valuable insight and knowledge which can be applied to improve the quality of life for all those living with dementia.
It is estimated that globally there are 47 million people living with dementia. It is predicted that by 2050 this figure will be 131 million. In the UK, one person develops dementia every three minutes. Although there has been a slowdown in the number of people being newly diagnosed, mainly due to preventative measure and the adoption of better lifestyles, as life expectancy increases so will the number of people living with this devastating condition.
Research from Kings College London forecasts that in 25 years dementia will account for more deaths than cancer and will kill more people than cardiovascular disease and organ failure. Surveys undertaken reveal that the over 50s are more fearful of developing dementia than receiving a diagnosis of cancer.
The government and NHS England have stated that they continue to be committed to regard dementia as a key priority. As part of the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia 2020 the aim is to be; the best country in the world for dementia care and support and for people with dementia, their carers and families to live; the best place in the world to undertake research into dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. The subsequent implementation plan supports the momentum to achieve these aims and deliver outcomes.
With no imminent cure for dementia or effective treatment to mitigate the symptoms or halt progression, good care and support are all that patients, their families and carers can rely on.
There is a great deal of variation in the quality and availability of service provision across the country. This postcode lottery is unacceptable and greater effort is required to improve both access and the quality of care on offer to all. The well-pathway for dementia care encompasses five key elements; preventing well, diagnosing well, supporting well, living well, and dying well. Patients with dementia often have their rights neglected but are entitled to be treated with the same regard as everyone else. Some of the key fundamentals patients have a right to access are: To be supported to reduce the risks of dementia; receive timely diagnosis; be involved with decision making; be treated with dignity and respect; receive the most appropriate treatment and support; have good support for the people providing care and have end of life wishes respected to experience a good death.
There are examples across the country of improvement in quality. For example, the National Audit of Dementia has found that hospitals in England and Wales have made improvements in making hospitals more “dementia-friendly”. Almost 70% of carers rated care as excellent or very good, and 75% said that the person with dementia was treated with respect by staff.
The Dementia Quality of Care: Personal-Accessible-Original conference will discuss the steps needed to ensure that dementia care is centred on the person, widely available and progressive with the aim to provide reliable quality care as standard.
More and more people are being affected by dementia. Whether they be an individual with a dementia diagnosis, family members or carers, there will be times when they look to or rely on outside support. That support should be available, timely and flexible enough to meet individual needs and able to enhance the lives of those affected by dementia.
People with dementia are often denied their human rights. Yet these rights are vital if they are to remain as active and included members of society. Philly will describe current and recent work at local, national international levels to address this crucial issue.
Presenting a pioneering Greater Manchester’s devolution-driven dementia transformation programme, Dementia United, the session will look at the opportunities for improving dementia care and support that the government’s devolution programme provides, using Greater Manchester as an example.
This presentation will focus on how service provision can be more inclusive for less heard minority groups and how awareness can be promoted among diverse communities
Sian Harrison, Team Leader, Advanced Dementia Support Team, End of Life Partnership (confirmed)
Sara Jones, Advanced Dementia Support Team, End of Life Partnership (confirmed)
The End of Life Partnership (EoLP), St Luke’s Hospice, East Cheshire Hospice and Dementia UK jointly set up the Advanced Dementia Support Team. The team promotes a palliative compassionate approach to the care of people with dementia. St Luke’s Hospice and The EoLP also jointly established a second project, a Namaste Care Programme which seeks to engage people with advanced dementia through sensory input.
House of Memories is a museum-led dementia awareness programme which offers training, access to resources, and museum-based activities to enable carers to provide person-centred care for people living with dementia.
Professor Val Williams, Professor
Dr Joseph Webb, Research Associate
Roy James, Researcher
Harry Davis, Researcher
Norah Fry Centre for Disability Research, University of Bristol
(confirmed)
The everyday life of people with dementia is full of chances to talk and to be listened to, whether this is in groups, memory cafes or other activities. Communication really matters, and this presentation is about a project carried out jointly with a research group of people with dementia. In the research we made video recordings of interactions between people with dementia and their conversation partners in everyday situations. We wanted to analyse how these conversations worked, and to explore if they could be shifted to better fit people with dementia. The three members of the dementia research group looked at parts of these videos, and helped us to think about what mattered to them. They also had great insight into what might work better, and have now created training materials in the form of videos for organisations supporting people with dementia. In this presentation we explore how communication works for people with dementia, and how working in collaboration with people with dementia can enrich the research, aiming to make a difference and to ‘get things changed’.
George Rook, Living well with dementia. Chair, Patient Experience and Involvement Panel, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust
Chair, Shropshire Telford & Wrekin Dementia Action Alliance
(confirmed)
George lives with early onset dementia. He campaigns to improve the support people get in the early and middle stages of the disease, as there is currently very little and in particularly wants to develop peer support and dementia companions (as in the Shropshire model).
On average, older victims experience abuse for twice as long before seeking help as those aged under 61 and nearly half have a disability. Yet older clients are hugely underrepresented among domestic abuse services.
Construction of The Bridgewater Hall commenced on 22 March 1993, but the idea of a new concert hall for Manchester dates back to the reconstruction of the Free Trade Hall in the 1950s after wartime bomb damage. The Free Trade Hall was home to the city’s famous Hallé orchestra and also hosted rock and pop concerts. However, despite holding great public affection, the 1850s Free Trade Hall was ill-equipped to respond to the rising standards of service and acoustic excellence demanded by performers and audiences.
