Global dialogue on advances in dementia care

This global dialogue looked at advances in care, and was chaired by Professor Brian Lawlor, professor of old age psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, and deputy executive director of the Global Brain Health Institute, and Paul Hogan, co-founder and chairman of Home Instead Senior Care, and a member of the World Dementia Council. It covered three themes selected based on their importance in the field: models of care, burden of caregivers, and art and music in dementia.

 

Friday 5 February 2021

Virtual meeting

 

Co-chairs

Professor Brian Lawlor

Brian Lawlor is a professor of old age psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, and deputy executive director of the Global Brain Health Institute. He is a geriatric psychiatrist with an interest in dementia, late-life depression, loneliness and brain health. Brian has worked for over 30 years on developing services and delivering care to people with dementia. His research interests range from early detection and prevention to evaluating new treatments for dementia. Brian also works with different stakeholders, agencies and research groups to understand the determinants of caregiver burden, particularly the impact of loneliness and behavioural and psychological symptoms, with the aim of developing strategies and policies to improve the wellbeing and quality of life of informal caregivers of people with dementia.

Paul Hogan

Paul Hogan is chairman of Home Instead Senior Care® and a member of the World Dementia Council. He co-founded Home Instead with his wife Lori in 1994, and today the franchise network is the world's leading provider of home care services for seniors. It has more than 1,100 independently owned and operated offices that provide more than 60 million hours of care annually across 12 countries on four continents. In addition to his work with the World Dementia Council, Paul serves on the board of governors for the Global Health and Healthcare Partnership Community at the World Economic Forum and has previously served as the vice chair for the Global Agenda Council on Ageing.

 

Presenters

Professor Felicity Baker

Professor Felicity Baker is Director of International Research Partnerships for the Creative Arts and Music Therapy Research Unit at The University of Melbourne. She has 28 years experience as a clinician and researcher and is currently principal investigator on two randomised controlled trials with people living with dementia. She has secured AUS$13M in research funding and has published over 150 books and journal articles. Her world leading research is highly cited and has led to the Royal Commission into Aged Care (Australia) recommendation 18 that by 2024, all aged care providers must engage a music therapist or art therapist.  Felicity has won numerous awards including being the second recipient of the World Federation of Music Therapy Research Award (2017) and an Australia Research Council Future Fellow (2010).

Professor Louise Robinson

Professor Dame Louise Robinson, is an academic GP and Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University.  She was the first GP to be awarded a prestigious NIHR Professorship.  Professor Robinson also holds the first UK Regius Professorship in Ageing. Louise leads a research programme focused on improving quality of life and quality of care for older people, especially those with dementia.  She leads 1 of only 3 Alzheimer Society national Centres of Excellence on Dementia Care.  Louise was primary care lead for the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge and is a member of the National Dementia Care Guidelines development group.

Professor Mary Sano

Dr Mary Sano is a professor of psychiatry and Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also serves as Director, Research and Development at the James J. Peters Veterans Administration Medical Center and is Immediate Past President (2019-2021) of the International Psychogeriatric Association.A neuropsychologist by training, Dr. Sano has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for the treatment and prevention of cognitive loss and dementia. She has also directed the development of neuropsychological assessment as outcomes for clinical trials in Spanish speakers in the United States and has developed methods for standardizing cognitive outcomes in clinical trial assessment in Europe and Asia. Her work also includes the development of methodologies to assess cognitive function in the elderly with special needs such as Down syndrome. Dr. Sano is a major contributor to both national and international organizations on the care and treatment of those with dementia.

Dr Samir Sinha

Dr. Samir Sinha is the Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He is also the Director of Health Policy Research at Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing. A Rhodes Scholar, Samir is a highly regarded clinician and international expert in the care of older adults. He has consulted and advised governments and health care organizations around the world and is the Architect of the Government of Ontario’s Seniors Strategy.  In 2014, Maclean’s proclaimed him to be one of Canada’s 50 most influential people and its most compelling voice for the elderly.

 

Other dialogues in the series

To inform the dementia landscape report, the Council has hosted global dialogues for international dementia leaders focusing on key themes of research, care and prevention that were identified at the London dementia summit in 2013, as well as on additional key themes and new policy priorities that we have agreed to highlight in the report, including data sharing and dementia registries, technology and dementia, and the impact of dementia on low- and middle-income countries. See more below.