Members of the public deliberate dementia
Fri, 22 August 2008
On 5 August 2008, fifty members of the public gathered at the ThinkTank Science Centre in Birmingham to deliberate the ethical issues raised by dementia at a workshop hosted by the Council.
The participants, who were recruited to broadly reflect the demographic of the UK population, spent the morning finding out about the causes and prevalence of dementia, and the kinds of ethical issues that it can raise. In the afternoon, four scenarios were considered which enabled participants to consider issues such as whether you should ever restrain people with dementia, and how decisions about treatment and care should be made for people who are unable to make decisions for themselves.
The workshop was organised and facilitated by Opinion Leader, a research and consultancy company. Opinion Leader will report the outcomes of the discussions to the Council’s Working Party on dementia in September, and these will be considered as part of the evidence-gathering activities of this project. A summary of the outcomes of the workshop will be published alongside the report, in autumn 2009.
Find out more about the Working Party on dementia.
Last Updated Wed, 27 August 2008