Friday 1 October 2010: 13.00-14.00 (Blue Room)

Chairperson: Professor Giuseppe Bruno, Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Rome "Sapienza", Italy

Expert panel: Multidisciplinary faculty including healthcare professionals, a carer and a representative of a patient advocacy group

Alzheimer’s disease results in considerable challenges in the care and treatment of patients. Day-to-day issues have the potential to raise far-from-insignificant dilemmas and can cause considerable distress to those involved in the care of the person with Alzheimer’s disease.

This interactive symposium is designed to provide a platform to discuss some of the most common everyday challenges facing those caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease. The aim is for the audience to contribute their own insights and views during the meeting. The topics to be discussed include views on whether the distress of a diagnosis can be justified by the benefits of early planning for the future and disease management, how to balance truth telling with causing distress as the individual’s memory diminishes, and how to reconcile individual choice and autonomy with safety and wellbeing. By sharing personal experiences, the faculty hopes to show how some common situations can be managed and also highlight the need for effective partnerships in Alzheimer’s disease care.

In this session you will also hear about the Pfizer Lifeline – a new and innovative patient insight project designed to explore the narrative of patients and carers living with Alzheimer’s disease, enabling a deeper understanding of how they perceive, and manage the ethical dilemmas which arise on a day-to-day basis as the condition progresses.

This symposium has been organised and funded by Pfizer Ltd