Dementia Awareness Week Conference 2009: Presentations

Let's get personal – personalisation and dementia

Alzheimer Scotland's first two day conference proved to be a great success. Attended by around 400 delegates, it addressed best practice in dementia services and how to put people with dementia and their carers in control, so that those services fit better with their lives.

Participants were encouraged to look at dementia care in new ways, from early diagnosis and post-diagnostic support through to improving end of life care.

The conference also saw the official launch of the report on Alzheimer Scotland's Beyond Barriers project. The report was launched by Shona Robison MSP, Minister for Public Health. The Minister said that this project was one of the ways of 'ensuring that care home staff are well trained and able to deliver a high standard of care.' The Minister also spoke about Scotland's first National Dementia Strategy, stating that it would provide a 'robust, sustainable infrastructure for people with dementia and their carers'.

Presentations given at conference are available to download below, in PDF format.

Presentations from Monday 1 June

• Getting it right, right from diagnosis

  • Personalising dementia care - future care planning for people with dementia
    Tracy Gilmour, Post-Diagnostic Practice Manager, Alzheimer Scotland Facing Dementia Together
  • Personal perspectives on early support and information, from people with dementia
    • Chalk and Cheese
      Sadie Bowie, Scottish Dementia working Group
    • Trying to live and cope with a diagnosis of dementia
      Agnes Houston, Scottish Dementia working Group
    • Facing Dementia
      Edward McLaughlin, Scottish Dementia working Group

• Workshops

  • Bingo and Allotments - personal stories of personalised care
    Gabrielle Colston-Taylor, Dundee Service Manager, Alzheimer Scotland
  • It's our lives
    Scottish Dementia Working Group
  • Legal issues, planning ahead
    Jim Pearson, Welfare Rights Manager, Alzheimer Scotland and Dianne Howieson, Executive Committee Member, Alzheimer Scotland

• Personalisation and Change

  • Commissioning services differently
    Morag Dendy, Service Manager Younger Adults, North Lanarkshire Council

• Workshops

  • Risk enablement: thinking outside the box
    Barbara Sharp, Practice Development Manager and Sharon Fabre, Risk Enablement Manager, Alzheimer Scotland
  • How do you personalise day care?
    Henry Simmons, Chief Executive, Alzheimer Scotland and Sarah Duff, Service Manager, Alzheimer Scotland South Aberdeenshire Services

Presentations from Tuesday 2 June

• Quality of life in care homes and hospitals

  • Keynote address: Improving the quality of life for residents in care homes - a report on joint visits to care homes by the Mental Welfare Commission and the Care Commission
    Dr Donny Lyons, Mental Welfare Commission and Susan Brimelow, Director of Health Care Regulation, Care Commission
  • Relationship care - involving relatives right to the end
    Professor Bob Woods, Professor of Clinical Psychology of Older People, University of Wales, Bangor & Co-Director, Dementia Services Development Centre, Wales
  • Challenging approaches to challenging behaviours: reducing use of neuroleptics for people with dementia
    Dr Gillian McLean, Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry, Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary, NHS Forth Valley

• Workshops

  • Making a difference to quality of life for people with dementia in care homes - a practical approach from a GP perspective
    Dr Gillie Evans, The Jenner Health Centre, Peterborough

• Breaking the taboo - end of life dementia care

  • Keynote address and launch of Beyond Barriers report
    Shona Robison, Minister for Public Health and Sport
  • Beyond Barriers - changing dementia palliative care practice in care homes: a success story and Erskine, Beyond Barriers training course
    Jenny Henderson, Trainer and Palliative Care Development Worker, Alzheimer Scotland and Pauline McIntyre, Erskine
  • Recognising and helping with pain in severe dementia
    Colm Cunningham, Director of Operations, Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling
  • Planning care in the last year of life
    Maggie Stobbart-Rowlings, Gold Standards Framework Program Manager

• Workshops

  • Planning for end of life
    Jenny Henderson, Trainer and Palliative Care Development Worker, Alzheimer Scotland
  • Emotional distress in patients and family/informal carers
    Dr Lindsay Martin, Consultant in Palliative Care, and Jane Wason, Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist, Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary
  • Ethical issues in end of life care in dementia
    Dr Clive Baldwin, Senior Lecturer in Social Work (Mental Health), Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Bradford