On 23 October 2024, ADI CEO, Paola Barbarino, Regional Director for the Asia Pacific, DY Suharya and Regional Director for the Americas, Diego Aguilar, and ADI Board Vice-Chair Meera Pattabiraman, alongside ADI member associations in the Asia-Pacific landed in Xi’an, China for the 27th Asia-Pacific Region Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International and the 2024 Annual Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease Chinese.
Hosted by ADI Member, Alzheimer’s Disease Chinese, the ADI team and ADI member associations had a full itinerary during the 4-day event, with group activities, meetings, and site visits lasting from 23 – 26 October, 2024. This provided an invaluable opportunity for the ADI regional members to convene and discuss strategies, which in turn helped strengthen individual member practices, as well as encouraged strong networks between the associations.
On 23 October, ADI associations were invited to view local dementia care and community centres in Xi’an, followed by a range of team networking activities.
The next day, ADI hosted its regional APRO meeting with members from Brunei, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, and Macau in attendance. During the meeting, ADI CEO Paola Barbarino presented an update on ADI’s advocacy for a 10-year extension to the WHO Global Action Plan on the public health response to dementia. Paola also gave an update on the regional and global insights from the 2024 World Alzheimer Report.
Regional Director of the Asia Pacific, DY Suharya, provided an update activities from the 19 ADI members across the region. With the world’s largest proportion of dementia cases, it is imperative that the national associations in the region collaborate and work together, sharing best practices to help address this growing challenge.
On 25 October, ADI CEO Paola Barbarino participated in the opening plenary session of the 27th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International and 2024 Annual Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease Chinese. In her keynote address, Paola highlighted the growing global challenge that dementia presents, along with the importance of developing and implementing National Dementia Plans. She also reflected on the need for addressing stigma and improving risk reduction, highlighting recent research data that suggests addressing 14 modifiable risk factors – such as smoking cessation and regular exercise – could help delay or reduce up to 45% of dementias.
Asia Pacific Regional Director, DY Suharya shared reflections on the conference in Xi’an.
In-person meetings like this are a great way to reinforce the interpersonal relations between member associations, improve collaboration, communication, and encourage open dialogue where we can discuss strategy, tactics, and future plans for growth of our respective country organisations. We would like to thank Alzheimer’s Disease Chinese for hosting us at this important event in Xi’an and we thank our regional members for their valuable contributions to advancing our shared mission of supporting everyone affected by dementia, reducing stigma, and fostering engagement and empowerment through collaboration.
After two days of sessions and workshops ranging from talks on dementia stigma, to risk reduction, to Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, it was a conference filled with much participation, collaboration, and engaging discussion. During the closing ceremony, Vice-Chair of ADI’s Board, Meera Pattabiraman and Paola Barbarino both contributed closing remarks, outlining the success of the conference, and highlighting the work in the area of dementia care that still needs to be done. ADI would like to thank ADI Board Member and Executive Vice-President of Alzheimer’s disease Chinese, Dr Huali Wang, and her team for hosting this important conference.
After the conference, the ADI team partook in some cultural activities in the Xi’an area, as they closed out their trip with a visit to the historical landmark of the Terracotta Army.
