Beyond the UK: Neurology Academy's education with impact reaches across the world

Neurology Academy may be best known for its education and MasterClass programmes across the UK, but our work extends much further.

Behind the scenes, we also develop and deliver bespoke education for healthcare professionals and communities internationally. Many of these programmes are privately funded or commissioned for specific groups and, as a result, are not widely promoted while they are taking place.

Often, it is only once the education is complete — and we can demonstrate what participants have gone on to achieve — that we share the story.

One such programme is our collaboration with the Anna Trust, developed through Dementia Academy to improve dementia knowledge and care within Catholic religious congregations and faith-based communities across Africa, Asia and beyond.

The 2025–26 programme brought together healthcare professionals working in very different settings, many with limited access to specialist dementia education.

But, as with all Neurology Academy MasterClass education, learning was only the starting point.

Participants were challenged to take what they had learned and use it to make a tangible difference within their own workplace or community.

The result was 15 workplace improvement projects across nine countries, spanning Africa, Asia and Europe.

Projects addressed dementia awareness, earlier identification, caregiver support and practical interventions for people living with dementia. The outcomes included:

• meaningful activity participation in one nursing home increasing from 5.6% to 94.4% in just 12 weeks
• identification of previously unrecognised cognitive decline within elderly communities
• the introduction of structured dementia screening and referral pathways
• creation of a Memory Support Hub in Nigeria, including five trained Dementia Link Sisters
• use of validated assessment tools to understand caregiver burden in Uganda
• new culturally appropriate approaches to dementia education, care and support in resource-limited settings.

For Sarah Gillett, Managing Director of Neurology Academy, the programme demonstrates why education needs to go beyond simply delivering knowledge.

"When Sister Siobhan and I first developed this programme, we wanted to take the Academy model that we know works and ask whether we could make it work in very different communities, cultures and healthcare settings. What has come back has exceeded what I imagined.

"These delegates haven't just completed a course. They have taken their learning back into their hospitals, care homes, congregations and communities and changed what happens there. Some are working with very limited resources, yet they have created solutions that are practical, sustainable and genuinely improving people's lives.

"A lot of people probably don't realise how much work Neurology Academy does internationally because some of our programmes are privately funded and aren't promoted while they are being delivered. For me, the most important time to tell the story is afterwards, when we can show what the education actually achieved. That's what education with impact means."

Global education, designed around local need

The programme also reinforces an important principle behind Neurology Academy's approach internationally: global education cannot simply mean taking a UK programme and delivering it to a different audience.

Education needs to recognise local healthcare systems, available resources, culture and the realities facing those providing care.

For some participants in this programme, the priority was improving clinical assessment. For others, it was tackling misconceptions about dementia, supporting exhausted caregivers or finding non-pharmacological interventions that could be delivered with the resources already available within the community.

The common factor was giving participants the knowledge, confidence, mentorship and framework to create change locally.

And that impact continues long after the formal education has finished.

A growing international role

Neurology Academy has already supported education in the UK and internationally, including programmes reaching healthcare professionals and communities in Africa and Asia.

Alongside our publicly advertised Academies, MasterClasses and webinars, we can work with funders, charities, healthcare organisations and other partners to develop bespoke educational programmes for specific countries, regions, professions or communities.

These may be delivered privately, but the ambition remains the same:

Education should not end when the teaching ends. It should create change.

Find out more about Dementia Academy