Speakers
Conference Aims
This event aims to bring together performing artists, seniors, health practitioners, international experts and researchers, managers and policy developers to discuss new ideas to stimulate and enrich the aged care sector through the use of creative expression. The conference will provide and excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and insights about creative approaches that can improve the lives of all seniors.
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Colin Bahn
Chief Executive Officer, Maurice Zeffert Home
Colin Bahn’s unique strength as CEO of Maurice Zeffert Home is his ability to nurture collective energy and creativity within his team,resulting in the facility’s phenomenal reputation as a happy environment highly sought after by aged clients,families and staff.
Patricia Baines
Art Therapist, Alzheimer’s Australia Tasmania
Dr Patricia Baines works as an art therapist for Alzheimer’s Australia Tasmania. Using image making she works with individuals who are living with the various stages of dementia and who have been given diverse diagnoses. She runs art therapy groups in residential aged care homes as well as with clients still living at home in the community. Patricia is committed to the engagement of creativity to enable older individuals to live full and meaningful lives.
Sally Francis
Arts Coordinator, Arts in Health, Flinders Medical Centre
Sally Francis is Arts Coordinator, Arts in Health at FMC, one of the largest hospital-based arts in health programs in Australia. Sally has a background in community health, visual arts practice and arts management. She is an advocate for developing government support for arts in health and promoting the development of programs throughout Australia. In 2007 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship travelling to the UK and Ireland to study arts in health.
Dalia Gottlieb-Tanaka
PhD, Chair of the Society for the Arts in Dementia Care, Vancouver, British Columbia
Dalia Gottlieb-Tanaka earned her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2006, in the Institute and the Interdisciplinary Studies Program. She graduated in 1976 from the BezalelAcademy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, and received a Master of Architecture degree in 1980 from the University. Dalia combines successfully her research with practical work with seniors with dementia. She focuses on creativity, dementia and the therapeutic environment. Dalia is an adjunct professor at the Centre for Population Health Research at UBC. She is trained in assessing creative expression abilities, designing and implementing activity programs and environments that meet cognitive and physical needs of seniors with dementia. Dalia conceived and developed the award winning The Creative Expression Activities Program for seniors with dementia and continues to deliver presentations and workshops in the US and Canada. For more information, publications and educational material please log on to www.daliagottlieb-tanaka.com and www.dementia-activities.com. of British Columbia of Health Promotion Research
Dalia is also the founder of The Society for the Arts in Dementia Care and is the moving force behind the establishment of additional affiliations in
Australia and in Israel. The Society sponsors annual conferences and workshops on creative expression, communication and dementia (CECD). For more information log on to www.cecd-society.org
Alan Graham
Chief Executive Officer, Aged and Community Services SA & NT Inc
Alan spent the first 15 years of his working career in the Western Australian public service,firstly with the State Housing Commission,then heading up the WA Heritage Committee before spending 10 years mostly as the CEO of Regional Development Commissions in the Kimberley,Gascoyne and Pilbara regions of the state.
In mid 1993,Alan moved interstate to take up a position with the Australian Council of National Trusts in Canberra where he represented the national interests of the Australian National Trust movement. In 2005,Alan became the CEO with the National Trust of South Australia in Adelaide and in 2006 became the CEO with Aged and Community Services SA&NT Inc.
Alan is passionate about making a contribution at the community level and over the years has been involved with an array of community and sporting groups acting in senior executive positions.
Hilary Lee
MSc Dip COT
Hilary is an innovator and researcher in dementia care. She has a background in occupational therapy and has completed a Masters in Science at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, researching the outcomes of the Spark of Life Club Program.
Hilary has undertaken many projects in dementia care that have been the first of their kind and has presented her work both nationally and internationally. These include easing the transition to residential care, the early identification and prevention of depression in people with dementia, a multidisciplinary approach to palliative care as well as a numerous creative expression projects.
Hilary has published articles on her work and recently completed a study developing the Creative-Expressive Abilities Assessment Tool in collaboration with Dr Dalia Gottlieb-Tanaka and Dr Peter Graf at the
University. of British Columbia and is currently the Chair.
Hilary is also a leader in the creative arts in dementia and has introduced a new chapter of the Society for the Arts in Dementia Care to Australia
Joanna Jaaniste
B.A. (HONS.), DIP.ED.,
DIP.DRAMATHERAPY, ATHR (Drama)
Joanna Jaaniste is a registered dramatherapist with experience in grief work, healing relationships and understanding your biography. She specialises in story work, roleplay and improvisation. Her lively approach is influenced by the work of Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner. She believes strongly in the power of dramatherapy to assist participants to find new directions for their lives. Joanna’s work at two Sydney Area Health Services includes individual and group dramatherapy with clients with mental health and drug and alcohol issues. She enjoys working with the elderly, and in 2007 directed a performance of arts therapies students at a Successful Ageing conference at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, showing how the arts therapies can help aged people. She has contributed a chapter on Dramatherapy to the book Creative Approaches to Dementia Care, edited by Trevor Adams and Hilary Lee, which will be published later this year by Palgrave Macmillan. A passionate educator and inspiring speaker, Joanna teaches at tertiary level at various institutions, as well as The Dramatherapy Centre, Sydney of which she is Principal. She has lectured and presented papers at universities and conferences in the USA, Europe and South Africa.
Kirstin Robertson-Gillam
MCouns, BA(Psych), RN, RMT
Kirstin Robertson-Gillam has been a Music Therapist, Registered Nurse and Counsellor for 26 years with experience in aged care, palliative care, mental health and disabilities. She lectured in music therapy at both university-based courses in Sydney, Australia and continues to give guest lectures. She has supervised many music therapy students on clinical placement and gives mentor supervision to under graduate and graduate music therapists and counsellors. She created the Spirited Living Program® which utilizes imagery, music and meditation for people of all ages to motivate and improve health. Kirstin studied psychology and musicology in her undergraduate degree at the University. She studied for a Master of Counselling and an MA(Hons) at the University. She is now a PhD candidateat the same university researching the connection between singing and brain changes in people with early stage dementia. Kirstin has recently been employed at the Hammond Care Group and at Alzheimers Australia. She has a private creative arts counselling, music and education practice based in the Blue Mountains and Sydney. Her email is kirstin@optusnet.com.au. of Western Sydney 2003. This work has been presented and published at both national and international forums. of New England and overseas.
Kirstin Robertson-Gillam has been a Music Therapist, Registered Nurse and Counsellor for 26 years with experience in aged care, palliative care, mental health and disabilities. Her passion is to explore creative arts therapies and counselling as a fully codified therapy. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Western Sydney researching the connection between singing and brain changes in people with early onset dementia.
Dr Peter Spitzer
MB BS, FACRRM
Dr Spitzer has worked in general practice in Bowral, NSW, for the past 27 years.
He is the Medical Director, co-founder and Inaugural Chairman of the Humour Foundation charity established in 1997. In hospitals, he works as Dr Fruit-Loop with the aim of dispensing mirth, infecting the ward with laughter and leaving his patients in stitches.
In 2000, Dr Spitzer initiated and travelled with fellow Clown Doctors to
East Timor to help children find their smiles again.
In 2002 he spent 3 months in the USA, UK and Europe on a Churchill Fellowship Scholarship, “To study overseas-based clown doctor programs and their impact on the health care system.”
Dr Spitzer developed the LaughterBoss concept and this new model was initially presented at HammondCare’s ‘The 1st National Conference on Challenging Depression in Aged Care’ in Sydney, Australia
He is involved in a collaborative study between the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre of University of NSW and the Humour Foundation in a landmark, 3 year SMILE (Sydney Multi-Site Intervention of LaughterBosses and Elder Clowns). This research will study the impact of humour therapy in Residential Aged Care Facilities and is a NHMRC funded grant.
Member Advisory Board, The Society for the Arts in Dementia Care (www.cecd-society.org).
Yukimi Uchide
Kesen Boke Ichiza Theatre Group
Dr. Yukimi Uchide is currently the chief director of ten facilities run by the Social Welfare Foundation Tennjin-kai, which includes Group Homes, Special Nursing Homes and Day Care Centres. As a part of her social activities, Yukimi has also been running Kesen Boke Ichiza, a volunteer theatre group. The group uses drama to communicate to the local community the issues of dementia, thus enhancing community awareness of people with dementia.
Yukimi’s latest research theme is “A Non-verbal Monitoring Method for Emotional Response Designed for People with Advanced Dementia.” The research theme reflects the importance of exploring and understanding the inner world of people with dementia.
Jane Verity
OTR, FT, CSP, NLPmp
Jane Verity is the Founder and CEO of Dementia Care Australia and is a world leader and pioneer in the emotional care of people with dementia. She has the vision and courage to challenge the status quo and create a world of dementia care that ignites the human spirit.
Jane has created the Spark of Life; a non-pharmacological, systematic approach to dementia care that has been adopted by aged care facilities throughout Australia
Originally from Denmark and now living in Australia, Jane is an occupational and family therapist, a master practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and holds the highest international accreditation as a professional speaker. She has authored two internationally published books and contributes regularly to national and international dementia journals.
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