BU Research Blog

On 15^th October, I presented at a three-day conference at Linkoping University in Sweden on Life with Dementia 2014: Relations. There were two strands to the conference: communication and citizenship and I predominantly attended the citizenship parallel sessions as this is where I am currently focused. The conference was attended by delegates from universities in Sweden, the UK, Norway, Japan, Canada and USA, all with an interest in working and campaigning to promote the rights and inclusion of people with dementia as equal citizens or partners in interaction. In the citizenship strand, there were presentations and key notes with questions and ideas on what citizenship and rights means in the context of people with dementia, with a particular challenge of what it means for people with more severe cognitive impairment. Throughout the conference, we heard, or spoke, about interdependence, human capabilities, opportunities rather than support, inclusive research methods, co-researching, parity of participation and transformative strategies to reduce social injustice. At the end of the conference, there was a separate meeting to work on capturing the enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring people with dementia remain equal citizens, so we formed the ‘citizenship and dementia international research network’, with a view to collaborating on writing, presenting at conferences, campaigning and working on research ideas. Anyone interested in hearing more, please get in touch fkelly@bournemouth.ac.uk