Speakers - Alzheimers New Zealand Conference 2010

Conference Secretariat
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Email:alzheimers10@confer.co.nz
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Speakers

Alzheimers New Zealand is pleased to announce our international and locally renowned keynote speakers who will present and discuss the latest research.

A panel of people with dementia and their carers will share practical and enriching coping strategies with participation encouraged from the audience.

Other presenters will be added to the programme after the abstracts have been confirmed.

	Professor Jenny Abbey Professor Jenny Abbey was Foundation Director of one of the three National Dementia Collaborative Research Centres established under the Australian Government’s National Dementia Initiative and was Queensland’s first Professor of Nursing (Aged Care) holding a joint appointment between Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Prince Charles Hospital. She is the author of the Abbey Pain Scale, the pain scale most widely used in Australian Residential Care facilities to assess pain for people with dementia who are unable to verbalise their needs in a meaningful way. Most of her research work has been in relation to the particular palliative care needs of people with dementia. Jenny now sits on the national Ministerial Dementia Advisory Committee, the South Australian Guardianship Board, consults to the aged care industry and holds adjunct academic positions in Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide. The moral and legal issues surrounding eating and drinking for people with late-stage dementia This paper draws on a body of work undertaken over twenty years since the author’s doctoral research on the need for a palliative approach for people with dementia. She has long been an advocate of teaching staff about hydration measures at the end of life and the distinction between ‘encouraging to eat’ and ‘force feeding’. Western Australia’s recent Brightwater case and the subsequent death of the central figure has drawn much media attention to the legal implications of the case. Less noticed has been the nature of the death - a peaceful death that took about 2 weeks - made easier by the court’s decision in favour of the central figure’s request that his feeding and hydration cease . There is good evidence within the palliative care literature that letting a person drift into a comfortable death by not supplying any hydration in the last weeks is an acceptable and dignified way to die; and this is now well accepted by experienced medical and nursing staff specialising in palliative care. Nursing and care staff are less sure of what to do when a person with dementia spits out food, or refuses to eat it and very often feel it is right to keep on ’trying’. It may be that this behaviour from a person with dementia indicates the reaching of a milestone in the pre-terminal phase; and if this were found to be so we would need to review practice and protocols on feeding people with late stage dementia during the later parts of the pre-terminal phase. This paper will discuss some of the recent debates around this question and put forward some practical ways to assist staff in their dilemmas.
	Professor David Ames David Ames, BA, MD, FRCPsych, FRANZCP graduated MB BS from the University of Melbourne in 1978. His training in psychiatry took place at Royal Melbourne Hospital 1982-4, Friern and the Royal Free Hospitals London UK 1984-5, before his appointment to a position as research fellow and honorary lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital 1985-7, where he completed his doctoral thesis on depression in residential homes for the elderly. David Ames was Senior Lecturer (1989-95) and then Associate Professor (1995-2005) in the Psychiatry of Old Age for the University of Melbourne at Royal Park, Royal Melbourne, Mount Royal/Northwest and Broadmeadows hospitals. He co-founded Melbourne’s first Memory clinic (1988), which served as a model for the statewide CADMS clinics, introduced in 1998. From April 2005 David Ames was University of Melbourne Foundation Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age at St. George’s Hospital Kew. Since September 3 2007 he has been Director of the National Ageing Research Institute and University of Melbourne Foundation Professor of Ageing & Health. His main research interests are pre-symptomatic diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, new drug treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and the care of the depressed elderly. He is Chief Investigator on the $3 million 3 year Alzheimer study funded by CSIRO (Australian Imaging Biomarkers & Lifestyle Study) 2006-9. David Ames has published over 130 papers in peer reviewed journals and has edited over 15 books. He edited IPA Bulletin, the quarterly newsletter of IPA from 1996-2002, he is a member of the Medical & Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer’s Disease International and has been Editor of the peer reviewed Journal International Psychogeriatrics since January 2003 (IF 2.207).
	PETER BAUME AC The Honourable Emeritus Professor Peter Baume AC was Professor of Community Medicine and Head of School, University of New South Wales from 1991-2000. He was a Senator for New South Wales between 1974 and 1991; was successively Government Whip, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister Assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy, Minister for Health, Minister for Education, and a Minister in Cabinet. He was Chancellor of the Australian National University from 1994-2006, was Foundation Chair of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, a Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Deputy-Chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS, President of the Public Health Association (NSW Branch), Patron of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of NSW and holds other positions. He is the Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Association in NSW. He is a physician who holds a doctorate, two honorary doctorates, and several fellowships and is a Companion in the Order of Australia (having previously been an Officer of the same Order). He has published extensively, reviews for a number of journals and has received a number of competitive grants.
	Richard FAULL ONZM, BMedSc, MB, ChB, PhD, DSc, FRSNZ Congratulations to Richard who has won the ‘Supreme Winner of the 2010 World Class New Zealand Awards’ please click the link here to read about his award for disease research Richard Faull is Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. During his 30 years at the University he has established an international reputation for his research studies on the normal and diseased human brain (Huntington's, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease and Epilepsy), and has established a unique Human Brain Bank to support worldwide research on human brain diseases. His research group has recently shown that, contrary to dogma, stem cells are still present in the adult human brain and they have the potential to make new brain cells and to repair the brain throughout life. His contributions to research on the human brain have been recognized by appointments as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1998) and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2005). He was awarded the Liley Medal by the Health Research Council of New Zealand in 2005 and New Zealand’s highest scientific award, the Rutherford Medal, in 2007 by the Royal Society of New Zealand for outstanding contributions in science.
	Martin Prince Martin Prince trained in Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and a liaison psychiatrist for older inpatients at King’s College Hospital, London, UK. He coordinates the 10/66 Dementia Research Group’s studies of over 20,000 older people in eleven low and middle income countries. The 10/66 Dementia Research Group www.alz.co.uk/1066 The 10/66 Dementia Research Group is a collective of researchers carrying out population-based research into dementia, non-communicable diseases and ageing in low and middle income countries. 10/66 refers to the two-thirds (66%) of people with dementia living in low and middle income countries, and the 10% or less of population-based research that has been carried out in those regions. 10/66 is a part of Alzheimer's Disease International, and is coordinated from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. 10/66 Aims Vision 10/66 aims to provide a detailed evidence-base to inform the development and implementation of policies for improving the health and social welfare of older people in low and middle income countries, particularly the 14 million people with dementia, their relatives and carers. Earlier studies may have underestimated the prevalence of dementia regions with low awareness. Dementia is particularly burdensome because of its strong links to disability and dependence. Primary healthcare services and governments have so far failed to respond to complex needs for long-term support and advice.
	Richard Taylor Richard Taylor, PhD, a former psychologist, has lived in the U.S.A. (Houston, Texas) with the diagnosis of dementia probably of the Alzheimer's type for the past seven years. Four years ago he discovered that thinking, speaking, and writing about what it is like for him to live with this condition had become the new purpose for his life. He speaks of Alzheimer's from the inside out in order to create a supportive community where others affected by the challenges of dementia can speak up, share their thoughts, and take life-affirming actions to improve dignity, quality of life, and sense of purpose for all of us who are aging. He believes by sharing his experience and ideas and encouraging others to do the same that jointly they can demystify and disarm Alzheimer's disease and create a sense of purpose that can change the way individuals, countries and the world view, understand, and respond to all forms of dementia.