Growing old: burden or blessing?

Ageing populations – investigating all elements of dementia from causes to ethics, cultural responses to government action.

Dementia is the biggest health challenge facing the UK today. There is currently no cure and people aren't getting the care they deserve. On 21 May 2012, the Alzheimer's Society published new statistics which found that 44 per cent of people currently know or used to know someone with dementia. It also found that the majority of people are worried about either themselves or someone they know developing dementia in later life. Yet despite their fears fewer than a fifth of people want to know more about the condition, with 18-24 year olds the most keen to learn more. Is growing old a burden or blessing? What proportion of our national resources should we spend on caring for the elderly? This dilemma will address these questions and investigate all elements of dementia ranging from causes to ethics, cultural responses to government action.

Taster session

Date: 30 October

Time: 12:00 - 13:00

Location: Forum Auditorium

Description: A time bomb is ticking. We are all going to be caught in the explosion. Some sooner than others. It is the time bomb of ageing. We are living longer, but quality of life is affected by chronic diseases like Diabetes and Dementia. There is a crisis of caring: how can it be afforded by Government, NHS and - us. How do we care for an ageing society in ways in which we would like ourselves to be treated? The future doesn't have to be bleak. It is in our hands. James Goodwin will give a short talk, followed by an interactive Q&A session with him, Janice Kay and the audience.

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Professor James Goodwin MSc PhD TD

Professor Goodwin is the Head of Research in the newly merged charity, Age UK – formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged. The mission of the new charity, one of the largest in the UK, is to improve the lives of older people. Age UK funds and commissions a large portfolio of research on ageing and specialises in knowledge transfer and research impact, delivering tangible benefits for older people.

James sits on numerous expert bodies, including a Ministerial Advisory Group on Research, a UN Research Agenda for Ageing panel, the UN Digital Health Group, a WHO Advisory Group, led the user involvement work stream of the EC funded FUTURAGE project and is Chair of the Halcyon (NDA) Knowledge Transfer Steering Committee. He is a member of the editorial board of the UK journal ‘Quality in Ageing’. He presented evidence to the House of Lords Inquiry on the Scientific Aspects of Ageing (Select Committee on Science and Technology) in 2005 and 2009, and to a US Congressional hearing in 2006.

Professor Goodwin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Keele University, UK. After graduation and service in HM Forces, he read for a Master’s in human biology at Loughborough University and then for a PhD in medical science in Professor Sir John Tooke’s department at the Postgraduate Medical School, University of Exeter. His research area was the effects of temperature variations on the autonomic cardiovascular responses of older people, an area highly relevant to the issue of climate change and older people’s health. He has been a visiting scientist to the Met Office for over 10 years and holds a Chair in the Physiology of Ageing at Loughborough University. After 15 years in the university sector he was appointed as Head of Research at the Help the Aged in 2002 and subsequently at Age UK in 2009.

Professor Janice Kay

Janice Kay is a neuropsychologist and a Deputy Vice Chancellor of this University (overseeing Education and the Student Experience) She trained at the MRC Applied Psychology Unit at the University of Cambridge (now the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit). She has published widely on language, memory and visual recognition problems after Stroke, other brain injury and dementia, diseases which principally affect us as we age. Her test battery for diagnosis of acquired disorders of language and memory is one of the most commonly used worldwide, and has been translated into many languages. Her Dad has had dementia for the past 5 years.