Dementia Awareness Week Conference 2009

Let's get personal – personalisation and dementia

Putting people with dementia and their carers in control and helping them get the best possible quality of life - from diagnosis right through to end of life care.

The conference will address best practice in dementia services and how to make services fit better with people’s lives. The conference will challenge participants to think about dementia services in new ways, right from support after diagnosis through to improving end of life care.

Most importantly this conference will provide information which can be applied in practice and also provide an excellent meeting place for networking opportunities and for obtaining information resources.

Who Should Attend?

The conference will be useful for:

• service commissioners
• service managers, practitioners and trainers
• service providers in public, voluntary and private sectors
• people with dementia
• planners
• policy makers
• carers

Expert speakers include:

• Shona Robison, Minster for Public Health & Sport
• Dr Gary Morrison, National Clinical Lead for Dementia
• Professor Bob Woods, Co-Director Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Wales
• Professor June Andrews, Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling
• Duncan MacKay, Head of Social Work Development, North Lanarkshire Council
• Dr Donny Lyons, Mental Welfare Commission
• Dr Gillian McLean, Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry, Falkirk & District Royal Infirmary
• Dr Lindsay Martin, Consultant in Palliative Care, Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary
• Professor Keri Thomas, Clinical lead, Gold Standards Framework
• Henry Simmons, Chief Executive, Alzheimer Scotland.

Interactive workshops led by leaders in the field include:

• A Positive Future- interactive forum theatre from Foxtrot Theatre Company on giving a diagnosis of dementia
• Bingo and allotments – personal stories of personalised care
• Risk enablement – thinking outside the box
• How do you personalise day care?
• Self-Directed support – where are we going and how far have we got?
• Dementia champions – changing practice in care homes
• Planning for end of life care
• Emotional distress in patients and family/informal carers
• Ethical issues in end of life care in dementia.