Annabel Price, Consultant, Liaison and Psychiatrist, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

In this talk, Annabel will give an overview of the current national and international status of assisted dying as it relates to people living with dementia, then consider in more detail the potential implications of the current Westminster Terminally Ill Adults Bill for dementia care. She will go on to explore some controversial areas like advance requests for assisted dying made by people with early dementia and assessment of capacity for assisted dying.

Naaheed Mukadam, Professor of Psychiatry, Division of Psychiatry, University College London

In this talk, Naaheed Mukadam, will explore the potential for dementia prevention and the evidence for whether any interventions might work.

Judith Harrison, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry, Newcastle University

Matthew Jones, Consultant Neurologist, Salford Royal

This talk will be clinically focused and will provide an overview of some of the more uncommon dementias we all encounter from time to time. The talk will focus on recognising the main clinical patterns and provide hints and tips on making the most accurate diagnosis possible.

Sponsored by: Eli Lilly

Including talks on:

• Real-World Use: The Practicalities of Patient Identification and Initiating Kinsula®▼ [donanemab]

Dr. Emer MacSweeney ; Consultant Interventional Neuroradiologist CEO, Re:Cognition Health

• Proposed Pathway of Care Within the NHS

Dr. Ross Dunne Later Life Psychiatrist and Dementia Specialist, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Followed by a Facilitated Discussion with Dr. Ross Dunne

Vanessa Raymont, Associate Professor, University of Oxford

This talk will cover the current status of blood biomarkers for both research and clinical use for the diagnosis and prognosis of causes of dementia, and where future opportunities and challenges may lie for clinical service use.

Ming Hung Hsu, Professor of Music Therapy, Norwegian Academy of Music

Non-pharmacological approaches play a central role in dementia care, including psychosocial, activity-based, and music-based interventions. This presentation will briefly outline current evidence from Cochrane reviews, including a recent review of music-based therapy, and note relevant ongoing reviews registered in PROSPERO. Rather than providing a technical summary, the focus will be on two practical challenges in interpreting evidence. First, most reviews do not distinguish between care settings, despite clear differences in needs, priorities, and meaningful outcomes across hospital wards, care homes, and people’s own homes. Second, music therapy and music-based interventions are often described using fixed dosages or regimes, which may not reflect how music is used flexibly in everyday care. Drawing on the NIHR-funded MELODIC study and the international HOMESIDE trial, the presentation will illustrate why these issues matter and how music therapists add value by supporting teams and embedding music into daily care.

Hilda Hayo, Chief Admiral Nurse and CEO, Dementia UK

In this talk, Hilda Hayo will focus on the difference specialist post-diagnostic support can make for people diagnosed with dementia and their families.

Sponsored by Roche Diagnostics 

Join Ashton Harper from Roche Diagnostics as he speaks with Peter Berry and his friend Deb Bunt about Peter's personal journey from uncertainty to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. This session will highlight the crucial clinical and personal impact of an earlier diagnosis in Alzheimer’s disease, centered around the theme of "the power of knowing."

• Understand the scale, pressure, and rising demand on memory services due to an ageing population and increasing dementia prevalence. 
• Explore the difficulties clinicians face in diagnosing subtle early cognitive symptoms, and how this uncertainty affects key decisions, patient anxiety, and strain on the UK health system.
• Discover how Roche Diagnostics is enabling clinicians with innovation, including CSF biomarker testing, the pTau181 rule-out blood test, and emerging innovations like pTau217, all designed to improve diagnostic confidence earlier in the pathway. 
• Hear first-hand from Peter Berry on what it was like living with diagnostic uncertainty and how receiving a diagnosis gave him a renewed sense of clarity and purpose.

Ross Dunne, Consultant & Later life psychiatrist Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH)

Ross Dunne will present the cases of three (anonymised) people with varying complexities at the Manchester Brain Health Centre, a clinic focused on timely diagnosis and risk reduction.

Jeremy Isaacs, National Clinical Director for Dementia and Older People's Mental Health, NHS England

Abstract:

Over 500,000 people are now living with a formal dementia diagnosis in England, a number projected to increase significantly due to demographic ageing. The NHS has made notable progress in diagnosis, public awareness, and the development of dementia-friendly services. Memory services are busier than ever, seeing 200,000 new patients per year, while a diverse community of voluntary sector providers offer a range of post-diagnostic support options.  

However, significant challenges remain. Waiting times in memory services are increasing; over 50% of patients are now waiting over 18 weeks from referral to diagnosis. The quality of diagnosis is inconsistent, with significant variations in subtype diagnosis. Delirium remains under-recognised and recorded.

Too many people living with dementia as patients or carers feel unsupported after a diagnosis. Addressing these challenges requires efficient resource use, targeted investment in cost-effective diagnostics and interventions, enhanced workforce training, better use of data, greater integration between health providers, leveraging the emerging neighbourhood health model to implement consistent post-diagnostic support and a public health approach to dementia risk reduction. The Frailty & Dementia Modern Service Framework presents a generational opportunity to ensure equitable access to high-quality dementia care across England.

Professor Dame Louise Robinson, Regus Professor of Ageing, Newcastle University

This talk will examine the role of primary care in providing dementia care and support and the evidence base underpinning primary care dementia service provision.