Reflections on the 10th UK Dementia Congress

Last Tuesday morning I excitedly boarded the train to begin my journey to the 10th UK Dementia Congress in Telford. I was looking forward to diving into the Dementia world, meeting new people as well as those I have connected with on Twitter. The programme looked fantastic and it was the first residential conference I have attended – expectations were high!

On Thursday evening I boarded the train home – flagging and exhausted, with a lot to process! My feelings during the week were so mixed.  At times I felt the buzz of enthusiasm, of future prospects; at other times I felt the despair and struggles still going on all around us in dementia care – not to mention to the health and social care systems as a whole!

A question

The Congress opened with a debate, the subject in question: has dementia care improved in the last 10 years?
Despite the immense challenges still ahead of us, it is clear that times have changed since 2005. With the rise of dementia awareness, and increased funding into research, times are set to continue changing – it’s safe to say I’m excited to be a part of it!

Reflections

I have tried to summarize my reflections in 4 points:

  1. We were given a statistic that 80% of people living with dementia live at home – I wonder why, then, the vast majority of the talks and groups at this conference focused on long term care and acute hospitals?
  2. There appeared a distinct lack of recognition of Occupational Therapy and the multi-disciplinary team. One presentation in particular boasted of multi-disciplinary involvement in looking at nutrition and dementia on a hospital ward – need I explain my indignation at OTs NOT being involved in the MDT list provided?! Aaaand breathe…
  3. There seemed to be limited focus on understanding eating and drinking difficulties in dementia, and little research about it – something that definitely encouraged me to continue with my research, of course.
  4. A positive – it was really great to see and hear about small projects springing up around the country: wards and A&E departments being renovated to be dementia friendly, a dementia home treatment team being set up and projects to make the care provided in care homes more person-centred. Another of my favourites – an excellent research project on how to use gardens in a therapeutic way, to improve the quality of lives for people living in care homes.
    Despite the sparseness of outcomes or evidence presented in some of these, what excites me is the fact that things like this weren’t happening 10 years ago. Who knows how much further these will have developed in the next 10 years, becoming so much more wide-spread?

Look to the future!

So… I encourage everyone reading this to look forward with anticipation towards the next 10 years. Sadly, the prevalence of dementia is currently on the rise, but with a continued fervour for research and an ever-increasing awareness of it, there is strong hope for improved quality of care and dignity for people with dementia… perhaps even a cure.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *