New year, new MasterClasses!

This year we are excited to announce two new MasterClasses to our range of educational offerings: the Leadership MasterClass and the Alzheimer’s MasterClass.

Leadership MasterClass

Our Leadership MasterClass will commence with its first nine delegates this February and promises to be an exciting and innovative course, drawing on interactive workshops, coaching techniques and a practical team-based project.

Setting it apart from other leadership courses are the variety of change skills that delegates will learn, from managing energy levels to creating engagement. Emphasis will be placed on creating positive relationships and having effective conversations, as well as on how to best manage conflict. You can read more about these skills in the write-up of Barbara and Gabriele’s presentation at ‘Raising the Bar’ in July.

The course will also be sharing the fundamental importance of self-care when in a leadership role, of managing and restoring personal energy during a project. Many healthcare professionals have a genuine passion to see improvement in MS services, and exert a huge amount of emotional energy in addition to their time and working efforts – as demonstrated through involvement in the ‘Raising the Bar’ programme! This course will look at the need to find a balance between caring for others and for self.

‘The work of leadership is to develop other leaders’, said Barbara Hoese, co-creator of the Leadership MasterClass.

Leadership is an essential skill to pass on to others whether through leading by example and sharing learning with colleagues and peers, or by inspiring people living with MS to be leaders in their own condition.

Find out more about it via Raising the Bar for MS – the programme it was established specifically to support, or read a more in-depth overview of the course based on an interview with Barbara.

Alzheimer’s MasterClass

Our Alzheimer’s MasterClass is scheduled for the Summer and has come about in response to increasing demand from Dementia Academy delegates looking to build on their Dementia MasterClass with a more advanced course. You can read an introduction to the course from Faculty member and course planner Dr Ross Dunne.

Our Dementia MasterClass takes a broad look across all forms of dementia, looking initially at the environmental context and global burden, before detailing diagnosis and management across clinical, behavioural, and emotional presentations. The last course programme is available online. Commonly attended by geriatricians, trainees in old age psychiatry, neurologists and Parkinson’s specialist nurses, the course has now been running for four years.

Attendees regularly note the impact that the course will have on their practice, finding that even the ‘drier’ topics like ‘practical neuroimaging’ or ‘legal aspects’ are presented with vim and discussed in an interactive, workshop-style format which engages delegates.

‘Made me think about several patients whom I will be going back to review.’

‘I feel I have learnt new tools for management of patients and good practice ideas.’

From ‘Delegate feedback 2019’

The coming Alzheimer’s course plans to hone its focus on the specifics of dementia assessment and management. It will be more suited to those who already have an understanding of dementia, whether graduates of the Dementia MasterClass, or dementia specialists in their fields within old age psychiatry or neurology.

For example, where the Dementia MasterClass covers history, cognitive and physical testing, and case-based subtyping, the Alzheimer’s MasterClass will look at structural neuroimaging such as how MRIs change with Alzheimer’s, volumetric MRI and advanced sMRI biomarkers.

It will also look in detail at molecular staging including interpretation of CSF and PET results, examine the various neuropsychological assessment options, and take a detailed look at managing with and without disease-modifying treatments, and using modifiable risk factors and non-pharmacologic interventions.

The full programme will be available online shortly and places will become available for 25-30 delegates. In the meantime, the Academy is accepting expressions of interest, so if you feel excited at the possibility of the new course, please drop us an email and let us know.