I had the honor and privilege to present and attend at the 36th Global Conference of the Alzheimer’s Disease International in late April. The conference was held in Krakow, Poland. The participants had the choice to either physically attend or to attend online from all over the world. I chose the online participation option due to schedule conflicts here in the states. The 3-day conference was full of a diversity of topics regarding Alzheimer’s and other dementias such as new treatments and interventions, caregiving, advocacy and policy and more. I presented my life’s work and research on the dementia care quality model during a pre-recorded session titled “Models of Care” among other esteemed presenters and amazing presentations. More than 1000 delegates participated in this conference.
I was personally inspired and moved by so many brilliant people, from Tasmania to Kenya, from Nepal to Scotland, who shared their work/research and their personal experiences/journeys at this conference. What was most in common among these presentations was to make a difference for and in the lives of people living with dementia better.
There are a few things that I would like to highlight here. First, I initially had little knowledge about childhood dementia but some of the presentations gave me more information and insight about this complex experience. Unfortunately, dementia can happen throughout one’s lifetime. However, there are also great possibilities for treatment and cures for childhood dementia if more research, including clinical trials take place. Secondly, many speakers talked about the lack of diversity, equity and inclusion in the dementia research and support process for people from getting diagnosed to receiving care. And there are also many targeted movements in place to improve these challenging issues in many countries. Lastly, Alzheimer’s Disease International has created the Global Dementia Expert Panel as an intentional strategy to enhance advocacy work. People on this vital panel are also people living with dementia and caregivers. Now the panel has a representative from each Continent and is aiming to recruit people from each country in the future. Current members spoke at the conference and reminded us of the importance and values of including the voices that are directly coming from people living with dementia. My big shoutout and professional respect goes to them!!!
I learned so much and hope to continue to learn more from people in this community/field. I am very blessed and grateful for this experience. This conference is biennial and the next one is in 2026. Hopefully I can physically attend the next one in France! Okay, I’ll be back to work now continuing to contribute my very small part to support people living with dementia and their families!!
To end this bog, I would like to ask people to participate in this special survey. ADI is conducting a global survey regarding “Attitude to Dementia”. It will be helpful if more people can participate in it. You can click the link below to do the survey. You can select your preferred language from the upper right corner. Thank you in advance for your help!!
Thank you for sharing about your presentation of your life's work at this conference, Kumi, and the important work being done by others, too, to understand dementia and respond with care. ~Renée