The
BRACE Dementia Debate took place at UWE last Thursday and seems to have been
judged a great success by everyone who attended. I’d just like to say a bit
more now about the purpose of the evening, and where we hope it will lead.
The
format was familiar to anyone who listens to Any Questions? or watches Question
Time, both flagship BBC programmes and both chaired by one of the Dimbleby
brothers. We were honoured to have Jonathan Dimbleby with us as chairman for our
debate, and he ran things masterfully. As I said to him afterwards, I was
finally able to relax at 7pm, after months of planning, when I knew everything
was safely in his hands.
We
also had a very strong panel, representing as wide a range as possible of the
challenges which dementia poses. The audience, too, contained scientists,
doctors, social services managers and many others with specialist knowledge,
including people who have had the painful experience of dementia in the family.
The combination of perspectives in the room led to some interesting redirections
of the debate, such as the need for better integration of health and social
services, or some unexpected replies to the request that each one of the
panellists suggest one thing we can do to fight dementia.
That’s
the reason behind the word “wider” in my title. I thought of going with “wider
still and wider” but, quite apart from the unfortunate imperialist
connotations, it falls short of our ambitions.
We
wanted to get beyond the usual constraints of conversations about dementia,
which tend to follow a particular route, e.g. from the cruelty of the disease
to whether we are getting closer to effective treatments. Bringing together
such a range of expertise, guided by a top quality chairman, made us hopeful
that we could really start to delve into various aspects of the subject in a very
public forum. The feedback suggests it worked.
But
don’t take my word for it. You can watch and listen for yourself here - http://embed.bambuser.com/channel/Brace. Start about 8 minutes in, or
you might worry that your PC has lost the means to emit sound!
We’d
love to have your comments, too. You could always use this blog as a place to
leave them.
Finally,
this is not the end of the process. We started a year ago by taking what I
nicknamed “the BRACE road show” to Frome and Salisbury, where we engaged
members of the public in discussion with scientists and others. Earlier this
year, we held an evening of short films about dementia at the University of
Bristol, followed by a remarkably successful discussion about the different
approaches science and art can take to dementia. Thursday’s debate was the most
ambitious of these occasions to date, and we plan to build on this initiative.
By
pooling our ideas and experiences, we might just be able to change the ways in
which we look at dementia and the ways in which we respond to it.