IFIC Australia Webinar: Improving the lives of people living with dementia

IFIC Australia are hosting a webinar on 31st October at 7pm – 8pm AEST on the topic of improving the lives of people with dementia.

It is predicted that the number of Australians with dementia will more than double by 2058 to 849,300 people (AIHW, 2023). Life expectancy for people diagnosed with dementia varies widely, ranging from years to decades.

Given the growing number of Australians being diagnosed with dementia, and the difficulty estimating life expectancy, it is imperative we focus on improving the quality of lives being led by those with dementia, their family, friends, and community.

Drawing on expertise from New South Wales Australia, this webinar explores living and lived experiences of dementia, and how we can improve quality of life both in the early stage of dementia, and in the last months of life.

Dr Zoi Triandafilidis

Research Project Manager
Central Coast Research Institute for Integrated Care (CCRI)

Dr Zoi Triandafilidis is a Research Project Manager based at the Central Coast Research Institute for Integrated Care, working to enable and support grant-funded research projects led by the CCRI.

Before this, she managed the MRFF Palliative Care Project, empowering clinicians to grow their research knowledge and develop clinical research skills, and support improvements in palliative care and end-of-life care on the Central Coast.

Zoi has over ten years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research. In 2018 she completed a PhD at Western Sydney University’s Translational Health Research Institute, exploring young women’s cigarette smoking experiences. She has a particular interest in family and friend carers.

Georgie Quick

Research Support Officer
Central Coast Local Health District
Consumer Representative

Georgie Quick is a Research Support Officer from CCLHD with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science. In October 2019 her mum, Jen, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. After a rapid deterioration Jen sadly passed away in July 2022. Georgie cared for and supported her mum throughout this time and is determined to use her lived experience to improve how we care for Dementia patients and their families in the final stages of life. Georgie is a consumer representative on various research projects focused on Dementia.

Christine Sender-Ivanov

Gerontological Nursing (UTAS) Clinical Nurse Consultant
Dementia Care Coordinator
War Memorial Hospital
Waverly, NSW

Christine is a career clinician who has spent much of her career working in tertiary, primary, facility based and community aged care. This cross section has resulted in a passion to facilitate the holistic wellbeing, and quality of life of people living with all stages of dementia and their families. She currently co-leads The Integrated Rehabilitation for Early Dementia (iREADi) Program based at War Memorial Hospital.

Based on RCTs by Jeon, Clemson, and Clare, iREADi has been running for over 3 years. It provides goal based multidisciplinary rehabilitation, a group education program, health system and care coordination, and ongoing peer and carer support. The iREADi program is underpinned by shared decision-making with the person living with early dementia and their carer, to improve/maintain safe participation in community and personally meaningful activities and was developed through co-design with people living with an early-stage dementia and their carers.

Bobby Redman

Chair
Dementia Australia Advisory Committee
Community Advocate and Lived Experience Consumer

Bobby Redman is a retired psychologist, with a daughter and three “amazing” grandsons. Bobby was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, in late 2015, and has since become a passionate dementia advocate, determined to improve the lives of people with dementia.

Bobby is the Chair of the Dementia Australia Advisory Committee, working for and with people living with dementia around Australia, as well as sitting on the numerous committees, with a strong focus on public health and disability access and inclusion on the Central Coast, NSW. Bobby strongly supports dementia research and over the past 5 or 6 years has been involved in numerous research projects, not only as a participant but as an advisor and / or investigator.

Bobby has strong community ties and is both a member of the Australian Red Cross Emergency Services Team on the Central Coast and a Rotarian, holding the position of Rotary District Chair of the Dementia Awareness and Support Committee. Bobby was greatly honoured to be a NSW finalist for Senior Australian of the Year, 2020 for her community and dementia advocacy work.

Prof Dimity Pond

Clinical Professor of General Practice
University of Newcastle

Constance Dimity Pond (BA, MBBS, PhD, FRACGP) is a Clinical Professor of General Practice at the University of Newcastle. Dimity has extensive experience in GP recruitment and GP implementation studies, she co-developed and trialled the General Practitioner assessment of Cognition (GPCOG) screening instrument. She was also part of a team with Professor Charles Bridges-Webb that developed GP Dementia Guidelines for the RACGP in 2003. The GPCOG is now widely used in primary care practice. Professor Pond was a member of the team which developed the current NHMRC endorsed Clinical Guidelines for the Care of People Living with Dementia as well as updating the narrative form GP Dementia Guidelines, aimed at the full primary health team. In her current role as a conjoint professor with the University of New England, Dimity pursues her strong interest in multidisciplinary care in the community setting. She is currently actively involved with the Sydney North Primary Health Network Dementia Quality Improvement program, which involves training for the full spectrum of primary care professionals.

Dr Nereide A Curreri

Gerontologist specialized in dementia and integrated care
Researcher, Centre of Competence on Ageing
SUPSI, Switzerland
Senior Associate, International Foundation of Integrated Care (IFIC)
Honorary researcher, Optentia Unit, North-West University South Africa

Nereide Alhena Curreri, PhD is a gerontologist with special interests in dementia and integrated care. She currently holds a position as researcher with the Centre of Competence on Ageing at the University of Applied Sciences & Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) where she coordinates the Italian language region’s participation in the National Implementation Programme – Strengthening quality of care in partnership with residential long-term care facilities. Nereide earned a PhD in Dementia Studies from the University of Stirling, Scotland conducting in-field research on the integration of older adult services for families with dementia through a social network approach in 5 Central American countries, and an MSc in Gerontology from the Vrije University of Amsterdam, NL. Her in field experience is in community projects for older people and people living with dementia in Scotland, with care homes in Italy, as Geriatric Care Manager in home care and starting-up and managing a dementia unit in California, US. Nereide’s aims include raising awareness of integrated dementia care at system, organisation, and community levels, and bringing to the forefront of policy and community agendas social determinants of wellbeing and quality of life through a gerontological perspective. She is author of recent academic publications. Nereide also holds a position as extraordinary researcher at the Optentia Research Unit of North-West University South Africa, and is a senior associate at the International Foundation of Integrated Care.

Dr Sally Carr

Director
Palliative Care Service
Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD)
Senior Staff Specialist
Central Coast Palliative Care Service

Dr Sally Carr is the Director of Palliative Care and a Senior Staff Specialist with the Central Coast Palliative Care Service in NSW. Sally completed her undergraduate and postgraduate training in the UK but emigrated to Australia as a Specialist in Palliative Care in 2006. Sally was fortunate to be involved with the Central Coast Palliative Care research projects in dementia and end of life care and is interested in the ongoing improvement of the coordination and provision of end-of-life care for all. When not working Sally enjoys playing hockey, getting satisfaction from hitting a ball as hard as possible with a stick, and running.

To create truly sustainable and resilient health and care systems that really address health inequalities, a system-wide transformation is needed. A new focus on preventative health, particularly for socially and economically disadvantaged communities is required to support better outcomes for all.

With more than 80 sessions to choose from including keynote plenaries, workshops, panel discussions, networking events, oral presentations and poster sessions, this conference will focus on taking an equitable approach to designing and delivering health and care services, working across multiple organisations, health and care agencies, but also policing and housing and other support agencies, and including the NGO and the community sector. A system-wide approach is immediately required to achieve better outcomes for individual consumers and the wider population.

APIC3 received more than 300 abstracts from Australia, New Zealand and the wider Asia Pacific Region. The conference will take place at the Wesley Conference Centre in Sydney CBD from 13-15 November and we are expecting over 500 delegates to be in attendance. If you are planning to join us please book soon as this venue has a limited capacity and the conference is expected to sell out!.

If you are planning to attend APIC3 in Sydney, then this pre-conference school will be a great opportunity to take full advantage of your time in Sydney! If you want to understand more about what our in person education programmes are like, catch up with Dr Edelweiss Aldasoro's blog about the Integrated Care Summer Schools in Oxford!

This immersive learning experience responds to demand from the health and aged care sectors in Australia and the Asia Pacific to help build knowledge, capacity and skills to support the effective design and adoption of integrated care in practice. The two-day course is designed as a short, intensive, residential program for individuals, teams and local partners to support the advancement of their integrated care projects and plans in their own context.

The IFIC Australia Integrated Care School is led by Scientific Chair, Professor Nicholas Goodwin and is organised in advance of the 3rd Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Care (APIC3). This course has been developed for those involved in the design, implementation, management and evaluation of integrated care approaches and who want to learn more about leading initiatives, new models of care and evidence-based practice.

The course will be taught by leading academics, policy makers and practitioners including IFIC’s international team of experts. It will have a combination of lectures, facilitated discussions, a site visit to ATUNE Health Centre in Cardiff, and some practical exercises.

You will be immersed in the expertise of the Foundation, the CCRI and its partners, the school will be a space for you to share your experiences, concerns, and learning with the rest of the participants in a collaborative learning environment.

There will also be a visit to an Aboriginal Cultural Site, an opportunity to learn from First Nation experience, a core theme of APIC3. Click here to find out more or to register your attendance. Places are limited so please book early.