The Bromley Dementia Friendly Community were delighted to offer a free space for Nicole Shilling, the Manager of the Saxon Centre, to attend the 2024 Alzheimer’s Annual Conference. This was made possible by the monies we received from the Bromley Innovation Fund.
The conference took place in Bishopsgate, London, on Tuesday 14th May, with the focus on “Making dementia a priority for all”.
The event was hosted by TV presenter Angela Rippon CBE, whose late mother was diagnosed with dementia. Her co-host was Bill Wilson, whose story about his late wife Jo’s dementia – and their battle with a broken system – was publicised by the BBC.
There was a very passionate presentation by the Chief Executive, Alzheimer’s Society Kate Lee who spoke about raising awareness of dementia and changing the system to ensure that people are properly supported and that there is an easily accessible system in place for everybody.
Their keynote presenter Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England gave an insightful address on “health in an ageing society and the importance of dementia”. The facts and figures were astounding with a doubling of the cost in providing dementia care to the aging population by 2040. These increased costs are in part is due to advances in treatments resulting in an ever-aging population. The focus was on the fact that with early diagnosis and treatment that we may be able to delay and slow the progress of dementia to a point where the impact on individual is much less significant towards the end of their life. This in turn would take pressure off the system and more importantly the family members supporting somebody living with dementia.
The conference organisers ran a series of break-out sessions and delegates could choose which groups they joined. Each of these sessions was hosted by professionals from organisations that had a wide range of experience in dementia care and also included people who were affected by dementia, supported somebody with dementia or were a member of a dementia related group or organisation.
Overall, everybody agreed that the system is broken and that the information people need at and after diagnosis is a post code lottery. It was also agreed that all health services need to join together to work towards an end goal that supports both the person living with dementia but also their carers. Even people who are health care professionals acknowledge that they had struggled to get the support they needed during their journey.
Mary Cridge, the Dementia Lead for CQC confirmed they were looking at identifying dementia pathways and good practice to improve care for those living with dementia and make services more readily available and easily accessible.
Discussions also took place about training and how important this is, not just for health care professionals but also for families living with somebody diagnosed with dementia.
There were many exhibitors at the event from organisations providing support, advice and guidance to others, those who have developed technology and equipment to support people with dementia including towel off soaps and shampoos to take the stress out of bathtimes. There was an emphasis on the importance of research in dementia and how statistics can support arguments with government to provide funding and force change.