Reflecting on the inspiring & relevant event: "Ageing Well In Birmingham" by the #LunarSociety

Although #Birmingham was the focal point much of what was discussed related to major health & social care needs of older people across the #UK.

An ageing population, at any time, brings with it challenge of providing more complex care; we are in an age where the short and long-term effects of #COVID19 are being felt. An example - hospital beds being tied up waiting for a care package to support elderly patients at home leading to immense pressure on the various care service providers. One major question that was addressed was whether this is actually leading to meaningful cross-sector partnership working involving all stakeholders including hospitals and social care services, even the not-so-usual suspects such as the housing sector (such as Extra-Care) and even the legal sector, working together to improve patient care.

Professor Joanne Rybacka-Brooke

Director of Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research

Director of International Dementia and Culture Collaborative

IAH Trustee

The book Dementia in Prison has been written for healthcare professionals, prison staff and all of those who support prisoners. This book is divided into three sections, which commences with an overview of healthcare services within prison settings and the need to develop these to support an aging prison population, followed by an exploration of both the human rights of prisoners with dementia, and ethical considerations of healthcare in the prison setting, including the current support for prisoners with dementia, alongside an overview of ethical processes to enable the development of further research to support older prisoners and those with dementia.

We need to decide if the Institute should be dissolved or continue at the AGM and seminar on 16 July 2019. We have an executive meeting on 21 May where a recommendation on this needs to be agreed.

Since the last AGM on 18 July 2018,  there has been little interaction with new or old trustees and our Chair Dr Dayani has left Birmingham and will be seeking a replacement.

His view is that there is an important future role in:

“I think the Institute could be very useful as a think-tank/forum for ideas on healthcare issues wider than care of the elderly. It is independent; its membership is largely frontline and academic health and social care workers who have an opportunity to say things as they see them (with appropriate solutions). There is a need for such a voice as unfortunately the NHS and Social Care are failing to impact dramatically on outcomes within the West Midlands and arguably more widely.”