We are pleased to announce that the membership of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) has been confirmed for the 2022-2024 term. The new group will officially begin its mandate after the upcoming Alzheimer Europe Conference, taking place from 17-19 October 2022. The EWGPWD for 2022-2024 is composed of the following 15 members:
Chairperson
• Chris Robert, Wales, United Kingdom
Vice-Chairpersons
• Margaret McCallion, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Kevin Quaid, Ireland
Members
• Bernd Heise, Germany
• Nigel Hullah, United Kingdom
• Erla Jónsdóttir, Iceland
• Marguerite Keating, Ireland
• Lieselotte Klotz, Germany
• Pia Knudsen, Denmark
• Petri Lampinen, Finland
• Real Larnou, Belgium
• Stephen John McCleery, Italy
• Angela Pototschnigg, Austria
• Shelagh Robinson, United Kingdom
• Věra Ryšavá, Czech Republic.
The EWGPWD was launched by Alzheimer Europe and its member associations in 2012. The group is composed entirely of people with dementia who are nominated by their national Alzheimer associations. They work to ensure that the activities, projects and meetings of Alzheimer Europe duly reflect the priorities and views of people with dementia.
The group operates independently and members elect their own Chairperson and Vice-Chairpersons. The Chairperson is also an ex-officio member on the Board of Alzheimer Europe, with full voting rights. During the group’s previous terms of office, members have actively participated in Alzheimer Europe’s annual conferences and contributed towards public involvement (PI) work for EU-funded research projects in which Alzheimer Europe is involved, as well as to other areas of Alzheimer Europe’s work. They have also contributed to research conducted by external organisations on a wide variety of topics including outcome measures that are meaningful to people with dementia and their carers, social health, people with dementia as peer-researchers and dementia-inclusive initiatives, and have attended a number of international events, including at the European Parliament, as representatives of the group. For more information about the group, see: http://www.bit.ly/EWGPWD
The 2020-2022 group met for the final time in Brussels on 27 and 28 September 2022. We would like to express our gratitude to outgoing members Idalina Aguiar, Stefan Eriksson, Tomaž Gržinič, Danny McDonald, Helen Rochford-Brennan and Geert Van Laer for their important contributions and wish them well. They will be missed!