Dementia Care Event: Considerations And Innovative Alternatives, UK

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare;  Primary Care / General Practice;  Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 26 Nov 2008 - 1:00 PST

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World renowned dementia care expert David Sheard is hosting a one day event on Dementia Care Innovation at Richmond Villages Northampton on Thursday 4th December. The meeting will cover best practice based on person-centred care, introduce a new alternative in dementia care and establish a focus group to develop ideas to meet future challenges.

David Sheard, director of Dementia Care Matters, is a training consultant with the Alzheimer's Society and will present throughout the event. Richmond Villages will be launching a free training and support initiative for carers in the community. This initiative, called 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', is for anyone who is a volunteer carer who would appreciate a greater insight and understanding of dementia. In addition, it is hoped that a support group will be set up to combat the feeling of isolation that many carers feel due to the lack of socialisation that their role can bring.

The meeting is open to Specialist Dementia Care Practitioners, Referrers and Fund Holders, Societies and Groups, GPs and Carers.

The Programme

09.00 Registration
09.30 Welcome and Introduction. An outline of purpose and content of the day 'Educational and state of the art dementia care'
09.45 'Being. An approach to life and dementia'. David Sheard
11.00 Coffee
11.20 What does person-centred dementia care look, sound and feel like. David Sheard
12.30 Escorted tour of Richmond Northampton
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Lessons learnt/transferable learning from supported living for people experiencing a dementia. David Sheard
14.45 Launch of Richmond Villages' new approach to dementia care and introduction of focus groups
15.30 Guest speaker Sheena Wylie of Barchester's Memory Lane
16.00 Summary and Q&A
16.30 Tea and close

The meeting will be held at:
Richmond Northampton
Bridge Meadow Way
Grange Park
Northampton NN4 5EB

For more information and confirmation of meeting attendance, please email nicola.harris@richmond-villages.com or call 0845 607 6405.

Further information
David Sheard
David Sheard is director of Dementia Care Matters, an independent consultancy and training team specialising in developing Dementia Care services for old people with organisations and their staff. He is also a training consultant with the Alzheimer's Society and a visiting Senior Fellow with the Division of Health and Social Care, University of Surrey, http://www.dementiacarematters.com

Richmond Villages

Richmond Villages is a UK retirement village pioneer offering three types of accommodation: independent village apartments, 'assisted living' in hotel-style serviced apartments, plus a small nursing home. Each village has nurses and carers within the care centre, in addition to its own on-site registered domiciliary care team, which attends to those living in the village and serviced apartments.

At Richmond Northampton there are a number of serviced apartments designed to help couples stay together where one partner is suffering from a dementia, or for individuals who have a dementia but do not want to enter residential care.

Richmond Villages currently has four operating villages: Northampton, Painswick in Gloucestershire, Coventry and Nantwich, Cheshire. Construction is close to completion at a fifth site, Letcombe Regis in Oxfordshire, http://www.richmond-villages.com.

Dementia

- It is estimated that there are 700,000 people in the UK with dementia. By 2020, that figure is set to rise to 1 million.
- Dementia affects 1 in 20 people over the age of 65 and 1 in 5 over the age of 80.
- Dementia costs the UK economy £17 billion a year.

Source
Paula Cole/Tracey Bretherton
LawsonClarke PR
http://www.lawsonclarke.com