2018 International Dementia Conference

Highlights from the 2018 conference

John Quinn, Former educator and school administrator: Masculinity and Social Mores.

At the International Dementia Conference 2018, John Quinn told us about his mission to live well with younger onset dementia and how focussing on what he could do on a daily basis has helped him. John is speaking at the online International Dementia Conference 2020 with his on-demand presentation titled “Masculinity and Social Mores: how gender, and the era in which you are born, influence the impact of your diagnosis of dementia”. Watch the video >>

Sheena Iyengar, Professor at Columbia University: Focus on what matters to people and those around them.

Professor Sheena Iyengar, a Professor at Columbia University, has spent 30 years studying our relationship with choice. In 2018 she spoke to us about our lives in terms of choice and how most people think that the more choice we have the happier we will be. But what she found really makes people happy is to focus on what matters to them and those people around them. Watch the video>>

Stephen Macfarlane, Head of Clinical Services for Dementia Support Australia: The complexities of meeting the clinical and psychosocial needs of people with advanced dementia.

In 2018, DSA offered a two-tier national service of the Severe Behaviour Response Team (SBRT) and the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service (DBMAS). Associate Professor Stephen Macfarlane outlined how DSA supports people with dementia by working with the person and their care network to understand the individual’s needs. Professor Macfarlane will be one of three doctors in the panel session “#BPSD a long and winding road” at the International Dementia Conference live event. Watch the video>>

John Swinton, Professor in Practical Theology: Love in the time of dementia: is care without love enough.

Professor John Swinton discusses his presentation at the International Conference on time and how we consider time as a linear progression, always thinking about what is next. For people with advanced dementia life in the now and how we find it difficult to stop and be in the present with that person. Professor Swinton will return in 2020 with his presentation “Love in the time of dementia: is care without love enough”. Watch the video>>

Maria Crotty, Professor at Flinders University: Home-like model of care vs. Residential care model.

A research study comparing the home-like or cluster model of care to the standard residential care model, completed in 2018 by Professor Maria Crotty and her team at Flinders University, was a plenary lecture at the International Dementia Conference in 2018. We heard how people who lived in the cluster model of care reported a better quality of life and care, fewer hospital admissions, and were less likely to be on psychotropic medications.
Watch the video>>