Abstract
In late 2021, the International Final Conference of the ERASMUS+ SiDeCar Project took place in Prague. The main topic of the ERASMUS+ SiDeCar project International Meeting was care for people living with dementia and care for their carers.
The key area was focused on psychosocial interventions and their implementation in educational curricula for professionals, with a positive impact on informal carers. Psychosocial interventions as non-pharmacological treatments are currently held in its various modalities for the evidencebased method, which includes indisputable advantages such as non-invasiveness and efficiency, built on individualised care, "tailor-made" and based on person-oriented care.
The basic characteristic of a psychosocial intervention is its holistic nature and complexity. The one-day conference took place in an online environment, with the first session taking place in the morning.
Project manager and the head of non-medical professions department of the Institute of Postgraduate Education (IPVZ) in Prague, Dr Pavla Povolná, opened the session together with the project guarantor, Chairperson of the Czech Alzheimer's Society and the head of the Department of Long-Term Care Medicine IPVZ, Dr Iva Holmerová. Other invited speakers for the morning part were the creators of educational project videos, Dr Miroslav Barták and Mgr.
Monika Čajko Eibicht. An important factor influencing the quality of care provided for people living with dementia is the ability of the health and social care facilities and experts to cooperate, e.g. in the offer and creation of co-housing projects - this was the topic of the presentation of Dr Adéla Mojžíšová and Dr Miroslav Barták, followed by the Coordinator of the National Action Plan for Alzheimer's Disease (NAPAN) Bc.
Markéta Švejdová, who presented the possibilities of cooperation and implementation of materials created during the project into the intentions and structure of NAPAN. The afternoon part of the conference was in the form of lectures and discussions by foreign experts (representatives of partner universities) of the SiDeCar project.
The discussion was moderated by Mgr. Tereza Pečánková and Dr Miroslav Barták.
The discussion was opened by Dr Iva Holmerová, who introduced the other speakers: The first was Fania Dassen from the partner university in Maastricht, whose team is led by Prof. Marjolein de Vugt (Netherlands).
Fania Dassen's contribution was on "The importance of education about dementia". Then Rabih Chattat from the project's leading university in Bologna (Italy) presented a topic for ongoing discussion: "A systematised channel to transfer knowledge in dementia care".
The University of Maastricht took the floor again, this time with a contribution by Niels Janssen who delivered an overview of various different topics. Last but not least was a summary and celebration of the successful formulation of the psychosocial interventions curriculum by the project leader Dr Giovanni Ottoboni (Italy), who discussed project outcomes from the SIDECAR curriculum.
The conference ended with a lively discussion between all the participants in the expert panel.