44 | SOCIAL WORK WITH OLD AGE

In social work it is understood that dementia is the possibility and opportunity to discover new futures for all who come into contact with people with dementia. The focus is not dementia, but the person with dementia, who, in turn, needs a lot of incentives and understanding from their environment. Due to the widespread negative attitude towards dementia and neglect of people with dementia, we need to focus on the empowerment of people with dementia, as well as on the empowerment of family members who care for them, as they themselves are often faced with being marginalised and pushed from the path of their everyday lives. The focus on empowerment enables people with dementia to take responsibility for their own lives, helps them to build self-esteem and realise the value of their experience, but also objectively strengthens their position in soci-ety, enables them to enter different and valued roles and use different sources of social power for a better life. This course will focus on the necessary skills for working with people with dementia in terms of strengthening their power to ensure independent living in the community. The course is interested in examples of good practice in social work with people with dementia, with their carers and with the community in which the person with dementia lives. A search will be made for similarities and differences between the treatment of people with dementia in institutions and various forms of community care. The specificities of social work with people with dementia will be highlighted and the importance of multidisciplinary work in this field will also be underlined.

Participation

Those interested in taking any of the courses may register with the IUC secre-tariat, school organising director, course organising director and/or any of the course directors by providing name, address, academic standing and affiliation.

2 ECTS are awarded for participation, 5 ECTS for participation with active partici-pation (slides or abstract), 10 ECTS for active participation and published report and 15 ECTS for active participation and a published reviewed academic article. ECTS are awarded and certified by course directors. However, it is the participants’ responsibility to make the arrangements with the home establishment for validation of the credits awarded if such an arrange-ment does not already exist.