The Many Faces of Dementia Course - UCL (University College London)
Online United Kingdom
Course
DURATION
4 weeks
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
STUDY FORMAT
Distance Learning
Key Summary
Gain a unique insight into dementia through the stories, symptoms and science behind four less common diagnoses.
Explore key issues in dementia care and research, through four less common forms
Dementia is one of the foremost priorities in global health and is estimated to affect over 44 million people worldwide. This has a huge impact on individuals and on society, so improvements in understanding, care and treatments are desperately needed. In this online course, you’ll discover key issues in dementia care and research. You’ll explore four less common forms of dementia, through the eyes of people affected by them. World-leading experts at UCL will show how research into the signs, stages, symptoms and causes of these forms can bring us closer to defeating dementia.
When would you like to start?
Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts.
- Available now
Who will you learn with?
Chris Hardy
I am a postdoctoral research fellow based at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL. My research focuses on the primary progressive aphasias, and the relationship between hearing loss and dementia.
Claire Waddington
I work for Rare Dementia Support, where I provide support to people affected by a diagnosis of rare dementia. I also work as a researcher and am part of a team studying the impact of support groups
Who developed the course?
UCL (University College London)
UCL was founded in 1826. It was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, and the first to open up university education to those previously excluded from it.
Who is the course for?
The only requirement is an interest in dementia, its effects on people and the brain.
We hope that this course will be of particular interest to:
- Anyone who works with people diagnosed with dementia
- People who have a friend or family member who has dementia
- People in the early stages of the disease
- Students with an interest in learning more about dementia
What topics will you cover?
This course covered four less common diagnoses of dementia, the people involved and the implications of these for our wider understanding. Core topics included:
- the symptoms and science behind familial Alzheimer’s disease.
- behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia.
- dementia with Lewy bodies and posterior cortical atrophy.
- Learners explored and discussed the changes in the brain underlying these conditions plus how support and care can help people live well with dementia.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:
- Identify the range of symptoms that people experience as a result of less-common dementia diagnoses.
- Explain how diagnoses of dementia differ in terms of the parts of the brain affected and the causes of changes in the brain.
- Reflect upon the experience of people who are given a diagnosis of dementia.
- Explore the role of scientific research in furthering our ability to care for and treat people with dementia.
- Apply this knowledge to develop a broader understanding of the symptoms and experiences of people with more common forms of dementia.
- Evaluate your own views and experiences, in comparison to those expressed by others.