The International Dementia Conference is a biannual conference that has informed and driven dementia care discussion for more than two decades.
Over two days, global experts, industry leaders and those with lived experience brought the latest dementia, palliative care and positive ageing research, practice and insights from around the world to share with aged and healthcare professionals. The event was run by The Dementia Centre, which was established by HammondCare almost 30 years ago to provide research, education and consultancy in complex dementia care.
PCNSW member, Hannah Bodrozic attended the conference as our successful scholarship recipient and has shared with us her insights gained from the conference, as well as her thoughts and reflections as a result of the event.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the International Dementia Conference 2024 in Sydney thanks to the Palliative Care NSW scholarship. Across the 2 days we heard from a wonderful array of inspiring speakers on topics including dementia research, lived experience, government policy and palliative care in dementia. There was opportunity to network with attendees from all kinds of backgrounds including volunteers working in aged care facilities, people with lived experience of dementia, academics, geriatricians, and people representing support organisations. Hearing about all the different work going on from around the state and even internationally to improve dementia care was really inspiring.
5 key takeaways:
- Dr Samir Sinha, Geriatrician, spoke of the importance of having high quality staff as a priority for care providers to ensure that patients receive the best care as well as the importance of having people with lived experience involved in designing services and guidelines from the very beginning.
- Language used in relation to dementia matters. We heard from Bill Yeats and Gwenda Darling who want to see a shift from the negative stereotypes of living with dementia often purported by the media to a more realistic representation. They hope to see the stigma removed from living with dementia and more of a focus on living well with dementia.
- Dr Nathan Davies, Professor of Ageing spoke of the complexities of planning palliative care for people living with dementia. Advanced care planning takes time, needs to be patient centered, holistic and can change over time.
- Lisa Twigg provided important insight in to lived experience of palliation in dementia and the importance of having a good death. Her talk highlighted the importance of families being aware of all available pathways and options for supporting a person and their loved ones’ preferred place of death.
- Good quality and enjoyable food are linked to mood (and other benefits!) for people living with dementia. Megan van Genderen from Group Homes Australia spoke of the benefits of engaging residents in food preparation and improving mealtime experiences. These changes to food services saw positive impacts on mood, behaviour and body composition.
Hannah Bodrozic,
Palliative, sub-acute and Aged-Care Speech Pathologist,
Long Bay Hospital
Find detailed information about the speakers HERE.
–
PCNSW will continue supporting our members with future scholarship opportunities.