Currently over 25 million people in the UK have a family or close friend living with dementia. The latest projections forecast an increase of 40% in the next 12 years.
Our evaluation from 2012’s Healthy Ageing Summer School and further consultations with students highlighted the awareness that many students have of the importance of learning more about dementia from a much wider context in order to facilitate a culture change about treatment, prevention and awareness for the future.
We were delighted again to be approached by the University of Birmingham who asked if they could host the event for a second year with Dr Zsuzsanna Nagy, Lead of the Neurodegeneration and Repair team, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Birmingham. This year’s event saw Waitrose continue its generous support of the event, with support also from Care UK. This year’s cohort also saw the inclusion of our first social works students bringing the multi disciplinary integration and collaborative culture to an inter-agency level!
We were extremely proud of this year’s cohort who took the learning from the Summer School to achieve some remarkable things (6months follow ups attached).
Additional materials
Programme
Results from the six months followup
Dietetics today article Dec 2013 – Heather Morgan
Nutrition iMag March/April 2014
Nursing Standard
What participants said
‘I learnt that health and social care professionals SHOULD and CAN collaborate with each other, for the benefit of service users, carers and their families.’ Summer School Student 2013
‘I found the lectures from the organisations/projects to be eye-opening and inspirational. I could see how their research findings/work in the community could be applied to promote health on a wider scale’. Summer School Student 2013
‘I understood the core message behind the importance of multi-disciplinary work. I knew about MDTs before, but now I can feel it’s weight. Listening to and sharing experiences with students from different disciplines was invaluable. As to the subject of dementia, finally I’ll be more confident around patients with this condition, which was a problem before. I feel that my practice will be better thanks to this Summer School. It was definitely one of the best decisions I made signing up for it. The other thing I also learnt, which is not so positive is the lack of training and interest around the field of dementia. It came as a bit of a shock!’. Summer School Student 2013
‘The principles that the College of Medicine stand for, specifically the need for inter-professional collaboration, are vital for the future of our health service. Hosting the College’s summer school for health and social care students on ‘Challenging Dementia’ at Birmingham University has been a very positive experience’. Dr Zsuzsanna Nagy, Lead of the Neurodegeneration and Repair team, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Birmingham
‘It was a pleasure to share the vision with the Summer School Students about how to work differently with older people living with dementia. It was a pleasure to meet such a dynamic group of future agents of change’. Summer School Speaker, 2013
