Agnes Houston MBE (a person living with dementia) Image Agnes will draw on her personal experience and her extensive global networks to act as an advisor to an ESRC funded project exploring the impact of people with dementia on policy and practice internationally. Agnes is former Chair of the SDWG and currently Vice Chair of the European Dementia Working Group and board member of Dementia Alliance International, Agnes, as Exchange Fellow, will work with Prof Heather Wilkinson, ECRED and Philly Hare (Jospeh Rowntree Foundation) to offer new evidence on the engagement of people with dementia in the building of dementia friendly communities - e.g. using social media, influencing policy, or helping us to think differently about dementia. We will work with international partners to utilise this research and collate how it is used by gathering real-world examples. The project will enable us to distil with people with dementia the key messages of the work as a whole, and will seek to both generate and capture impact across a number of levels/audiences about living well with dementia. AGNES Houston was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's Dementia in 2006 at the age of 57. She is a active member of the Scottish Dementia Working Group. In 2012 she was elected vice chair of the European Working Group Person with Dementia She has campaigned for best practice and improving lives of people with dementia especially sensory issues and Dementia in Scotland and received a lifetime achievement award by Alzheimer Scotland in 2013. In 2015 was awarded an MBE and in 2016 was awarded a Churchill Fellow. Agnes travelled to Ireland and Canada to explore dementia and sensory issues as part of her Fellowship. Her Report can be found here: Document Agnes Houston: 'Think dementia, Think sensory' - Winston Churchill Fellowship report (927.71 KB / PDF)
