Swarm 2017: Special Guest Announcement
Many TPCers recently completed a nine-week training course entitled ‘Understanding Dementia’ organized through the University of Tasmania. If you are one of these folks, you probably already know Fran – one of the driving forces behind this programme.
If you weren’t, allow us to introduce Fran McInerney – our special guest and keynote for Swarm 2017.
Fran is a researcher, a professor of Dementia Studies and Education at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania, and a big proponent of dementia awareness. She has been the Wicking Centre’s Understanding Dementia MOOC academic coordinator since 2014. Fran has published widely in the area of dementia needs and care strategies and has presented more than 50 related sessions/workshops to a variety of health and community audiences in Australia and elsewhere
At Swarm 2017, Fran will be presenting a talk on, you guessed it, dementia. Her presentation will touch on causes, symptoms and treatment strategies (among other things).
As the population in Australia ages, dementia has increasingly been identified as a key public health concern in the 21st century. Unfortunately, not every physiotherapy or occupational therapy degree offers much training on dementia. We’ve listened to the feedback of our team and concluded that this is an area where additional education or information would be useful.
Dementia is an extremely challenging condition to treat and sometimes even to recognise. Dementia related symptoms are often not recognised by the primary care system or are confused with another diagnosis. At The Physio Co, we’re always looking for ways to make the jobs of TPCers easier and raise the standard of care they’re able to give. We try to do this in small ways every day, and inviting Fran to be our special guest this year has exactly the same end.
Fran has a wealth of knowledge to share, and she’s articulate and passionate about what she does. It’s our hope that TPCers will come away armed with more knowledge and more confidence in approaching patients with Dementia.
We’re very excited to have her so please join us in welcoming Fran to The Physio Co!
Stay connected with us over the next few days, and for further details you can contact us at 1300 797 793.