Maintaining connection with Dementia Friendly Cities

“The gift of the brain” says Professeur Florence Pasquier, “is something to be cherished!”

On day five of our A Meeting of ‘MINDS’ motorbike tour, we were very pleased to meet and interview Professeur Florence Pasquier. One of a dedicated team based in Lille (France) and working towards a greater understanding of and a future cure for Alzheimer’s. She works in one of 30 centres in the north of France, all very collaborative and motivated towards achieving their end goal.

All of the people we have been lucky to meet and interview have all confirmed that Alzheimer’s is an extremely difficult condition to research, especially compared to many other conditions/ illnesses.
Prof. Pasquier is a very humble clinician based in the Neurology Dept of the Hospitalier Regionale et Universitaire de Lille (CHRU). The facility not only researches the condition, they also directly treats out patients, which creates an opportunity to see theory and practical expertise coexisting. She was keen to point out that the environment of Clinicians and Researchers works extremely well. She kindly shared her thoughts for the future and her grand vision for Dementia Friendly Cities, where dementia sufferers can co-exist in an all inclusive environment.

Prof. Pasquier highlighted a need for society to have a greater understanding through education. This of course is no cure, but the condition is very much with us and is a growing economic and social issue. A general understanding of the condition, even on a very limited basis, will help the carers and suffers within the world they currently find themselves in.  Her vision is shared by many of her team and community peers.  

What we need to consider is to spend less on care, but involve the community and then reallocate the funds into more research - “Better to find a vaccine than build more sanitariums!” Her vision is someway off from being completed, but her conviction to achieve this is undaunting and is infectious, as others take on the mantle of creating an Alzheimer’s free world.

Unlike the UK, where the government partially funds research and the rest is created by organisations such as BRACE (BRACE– Funding Research into Dementia http://www.alzheimers-brace.org/), research in France is totally created by the ‘public purse’ through standard government taxation. So for the UK it is essential that organisations such as BRACE are fully supported by the general public. As you may not know, for every £10 spent on dementia health and social care only £0.08 is spent on research.