It was an honour to be able to showcase our work at Bradford, and in particular person-centred care at the Korean chapter of the International Association for Gerontechnology in Seoul on 9th November.
Here I am giving my keynote talk entitled ‘Citizenship, person centred care, dementia and technology’.
One of the hosts, Dr Dong Seon Kim had already visited us in Bradford earlier in the year to hear about person centred care and wanted a presentation that incorporated this approach. Other presentations concerned the benefits of different technologies for older people (including those with dementia) and people with disabilities. There was also some discussion of the service infrastructure in South Korea.
Another image of me with the President of the Korean Chapter of the association Professor Woo Joung Shim.
And with the founders of the International Gerontechnology Association, Professor Bill Kearns and Professor Jim Fozard from the USA.
As you can see from the above image, not all our time was spent working – the hosts ensured that we had plenty of opportunity to sample Korean culture. One tradition is to dress up in traditional costume to visit the palace (picture below). Those dressed up get free entry and there were plenty of people doing just that. The food was also a highlight – I was given the opportunity to sample lots of local cuisine.
I do hope that this trip will open doors for on-going work with Korea on dementia, person centred care and technology.
Written by Gail Mountain