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The Many Faces of Dementia

Gain a unique insight into dementia through the stories, symptoms and science behind four less common diagnoses.

89,155 enrolled on this course

Image of a brain showing shrinkage due to a form of dementia

The Many Faces of Dementia

89,155 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 2 hours per week

  • Accreditation available

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Open level

Find out more about how to join this course

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.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 10 seconds Hello my name is Nick Fox I direct the Dementia Research Centre at UCL’s Institute of Neurology here at Queen Square in London. I’d like to talk to you about dementia. Dementia is the most pressing social and health problem of our time, has devastating consequences for the individual for their families and for society. Dementia is an umbrella term for a number of diseases that cause a progressive loss of thinking skills. Alzheimer’s disease is by far the most common cause but there are many less well-known forms of dementia which affect thousands or millions of people but they’re often under recognised. So how can we better understand dementia, how can we provide the support the care and the treatments that are desperately needed?

Skip to 0 minutes and 47 seconds On this four-week course you’ll learn about dementia from a new perspective with world leading experts sharing their knowledge and importantly patients and carers sharing their candid personal accounts to demonstrate the symptoms and understand the challenges of living with these four less common forms of dementia. These are familial Alzheimer’s disease behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and posterior cortical atrophy. Research into these forms of dementia has the power to help those affected and their families and as we’ll show it can also provide unique insights into dementia in general. For example we’ll talk to professors Martin Rossor and John Hardy who carried out prize-winning work finding the very first gene that causes the rare familial form of Alzheimer’s disease.

Skip to 1 minute and 36 seconds We’ll show how these insights from familial Alzheimer’s disease led to the design of new treatments with huge potential currently being trialled at UCL. The course is designed to be suitable for anybody and we hope it will be particularly interesting for those who interact with people with dementia as part of their work and those whose families and friends are affected as well as students with an interest in dementia. By the time you’ve completed the course we hope you’ll be able to apply your understanding of the different forms of dementia; symptoms, diagnosis, research and support to your personal and professional lives.

Skip to 2 minutes and 11 seconds So please sign up for this free 4 week course about dementia at UCL and learn from world leading experts, individuals, patients and their families and be part of the conversation about the challenge of our time, 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.

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service
The CPD Certification Service:

This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

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.

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

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.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$134/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 25 Apr 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

T&Cs apply.

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