” Dementia Alliance International is pleased to announce we have been accepted to host a Side Event at the upcoming 12th Conference Of State Parties (CoSP) on the Convention On the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations in New York on June 13, 2019.

We are honoured to have a number of co hosts supporting this event, and to be supported by the United Nations and World Health Organisation, as well as the Australian government. “

The side event is a significant step forward in the representation of people living with Dementia at the highest level.

Dementia should no longer be seen primarily as a mental health condition, rather that mental health problems manifest as in the later stages of the disease, as with Cancer Heart Failure, Stroke and other Chronic Terminal Diseases.

The United Nations has reframed Dementia as a Cognitive Disability

In a BMJ Article:

“Reframing dementia means presenting dementia to the patient as a disability that can be accommodated and emphasising the persistent abilities”

In the Australian Journal of Dementia Care, Kate Swaffer writes

The United Nations, through the CRPD Committee, WHO Dementia Committee and International Law via the UN CRPD has also brought forward significant universal rights to people living with Disabilities including people living with Dementia.

Dementia: the leading cause of disability

DAI Side-event during 12th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN CRPD

” In 2019, the Dementia Alliance International (DAI) is celebrating 5 years of existence, and at this Side Event, we recognise the progress that has been made by people with dementia in the advancement of the rights of persons with dementia, as persons living with acquired cognitive disabilities.

Through the side-event, DAI aims to highlight the progress made towards claiming their rights as persons with cognitive disabilities over the past 5+ years, aiming to highlight dementia as a disability, and identify areas of further collaboration between the members of DAI and its international partners and all relevant stakeholders, including United Nations agencies.

The overarching theme is of social inclusion and health, which are two of the determinants of well-being, both of which are being systematically denied to people with dementia all around the world, including in the developed countries.

We will hear from an eminent list of speakers, on the rights of persons with any type of disability, including dementia, to full and equal access to the CRPD, and specifically on the right to rehabilitation and to Universal Health Care.  “

The event has now finished but you can watch a recording here

Speakers:

They are honoured to have Mrs. Catalina Devandas Aguilar, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities to open the Side Event.

Other speakers will discuss the relevance of their work to Dementia as a disability; e.g. Bethany Browne from Human Rights Watch will discuss the abuse through chemical restraint of people with Dementia living in USA nursing homes, from the Human Rights Watch report, “They Want Docile.”

Mrs. Catalina Devandas Aguilar, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities: opening the Side Event

Christine Thelker, DAI Board Member:“Dementia as a disability”

Bethany Brown, Researcher, Older People’s Rights, Disability Rights Division, Human Rights Watch: “Violations of the rights of older people with dementia”

Arlene Pietranton, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: “Rehabilitation for dementia and aphasia”

Mr. Antony Duttine, Regional Advisor in disabilities and rehabilitation, Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO): “Quality Rights” 

Jan Monsbakken, Global Rehabilitation Alliance: “The Rights to Rehabilitation for All”

Kate Swaffer, Dementia Alliance International, Chair/CEO: Closing remarks

The side event is a significant step forward in the representation of people living with Dementia at the highest level.

The United Nations, through the CRPD Committee, WHO Dementia Committee and International Law via the UN CRPD has brought forward significant