New, improved and well received: our 7th Dementia MasterClass

The 7th Dementia MasterClass took place on 20-21st October in Halifax Hall, Sheffield - the first of its kind to take place since before the pandemic. The break in delivery has provided an opportunity to revisit the original style of the programme, resulting in more case-based learning, practical application and interactive discussion than ever before.

The 40 healthcare professionals in attendance spanned various roles including consultant geriatricians and old age psychiatrists, specialist nurses, therapists, GPs, associate professors, registrars and speciality doctors.

The first day of the programme provided essential background to dementia, neurosciences, cognitive domains and neuropsychological testing followed by a case-based dig into typical and atypical clinical phenotypes.

The second day focused on management across the lifespan of dementia from brain health optimisation and dementia prevention, through mild cognitive impairment and the dementia prodrome, and into management, both early stage, complex, and hospital based.

A number of delegates noted particular aspects of learning that they would take back to practice, from prevention through to diagnosis and management, and 100% of delegates said they were likely, or highly likely, to modify their practice as a result of the course.

The quality of education offered and its relevance to delegates' needs was also rated highly with more than 80% assigning it the highest score. The new elements of the course focused around case based discussions were incredibly well received; the BPSD mini-cases were declared 'the best presentation of the whole 2 days' by one enthusiastic delegate.

For the first time, this MasterClass will be supporting delegates in completing a quality improvement project. The course featured a practical session on the brain health clinic model as a service option supporting brain health promotion through to diagnosis of cognitive impairment, management, and monitoring of early dementia.

The course ended with some inspiring words from Academic Director Prof Iracema Leroi, who encouraged delegates to think how they would put their learning into practice.

The delegate group will meet back again in 2023 to present their quality improvement projects - all of which will be available to learn from on the Projects section of our website.