Strong educational partnerships at an international level

This year has seen a number of Dementia Academy initiatives run across partnerships with other organisations, with four brand new educational programmes rolled out over the course of the year, each shedding light on areas of dementia where there is a real need.

The International Dementia Academy Bangladesh ran its first MasterClass in September, and was an initiative sponsored via an educational grant from ESTHER Ireland and run in partnership with the Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Alzheimer Society of Bangladesh, Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Lund University.

In this video, I discuss the importance of education on an international scale, and particularly why clinically-led educational support around dementia is essential for developing countries.

Brand new courses in Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease both debuted this year, as did our fully virtual Mild cognitive impairment course. The series of 8 modules, led by Dr Ross Dunne and carried out in partnership with Dementia United, took place from March to September this year. 78 delegates from a variety of roles and backgrounds completed the course, 24 of whom also elected to complete a quality improvement project based on their learning.

With projects ranging from brain health promotion to simple screening for REM sleep behaviour to culturally-tailored education, there was a great deal of practical learning leading to quality improvement around the country. A booklet comprising summaries of all of the projects resulting from the Mild cognitive impairment course will be available in the new year as a free resource, with hopes of another MCI course in the near future. With a second Lewy body MasterClass expected to run next year too, it's set to be an eventful 2022!