Peter McKnight: Alzheimer Cafes address dementia patients' isolation (PHC)
For many people, a dementia diagnosis represents the end. Not the end of life, or even the end of quality of life.
But in contrast to other diseases, where a diagnosis is typically followed by a course of treatment and a deepening relationship with health care professionals, people with dementia often avoid further contact with the health care system, including their doctors. Indeed, a recent study from the University of Oxford found that 69 per cent of dementia patients remain unknown to their family doctors.
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At Providence Health Care’s 15th Annual Geriatric Services Conference, Dialogue on Aging, at the Vancouver Convention Centre, nurse-psychologist Gemma Jones, who founded the first Alzheimer’s Cafe in the United Kingdom in 2000, will discuss the Cafe concept in an evening public presentation. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday April 6, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.
Peter McKnight reports
