Meet Jamaican Sandra Latibeaudiere, recipient of our travel bursary supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Healthy Ageing Challenge!
We are delighted Sandra Latibeaudiere has accepted our offer of our 2023 travel bursary, supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Healthy Ageing Challenge, to attend the Global Ageing Conference, 7-8 September 2023, Glasgow, Scotland.
Sandra is a Lecturer and the Section Head/Unit Coordinator for the Social Work Programme at the UWI, Mona. Her academic, research and practice interests cover ageing, dementia care, disability, gender and social policy.
As a respected researcher, Sandra has had articles published in peer-reviewed journals and in the newspaper (for non-academics) on the complexity of dementia care, in particular, the social dimensions of Alzheimer’s and other dementias and the impact on family caregivers, who are mainly women.
In addition, she is an MPhil/PhD candidate in Ageing Studies, Medical Sciences Faculty, UWI, Mona, and her thesis will explore some of the experiences of caregivers caring for community-dwelling older adults with dementia in Jamaica.
As a founding member of Alzheimer’s Jamaica, Sandra has established a memory club and supported many families locally and abroad following a dementia diagnosis via tele-counselling, crisis management and linking them with scarce resources available.
“I have the uncanny ability to get persons from diverse groups to work together. It has proven effective in my volunteer work with Alzheimer’s Jamaica,” she says.
“I do radio interviews to let caregivers and families know they are not alone. I have collaborated with the National Council for Senior Citizens, a state entity, to raise awareness about dementia among older adults during World Alzheimer’s Month,” she adds.
Also, as Director of Programmes, in 2019, Sandra planned and executed the staging of an Alzheimer’s Conference under the theme Understanding and Preventing Dementia. There were approximately 170 attendees. In general, attendees reported that the conference met their expectations, and many stated that it exceeded them. One of the comments was that it was ‘Very informative and eye-opening’.
As a critical social work educator and practitioner, Sandra is aware of the power dynamics and ageist undercurrents in institutional and structural policies and programmes.
“My work is primarily community outreach and advocacy. In my community outreach, I frame the discussions around building dementia-friendly spaces where families feel safe sharing their experiences and learning from others,” she says.
“Attending the conference is an opportunity to create transdisciplinary collaboration, which will help me better serve this underserved and socially excluded population and make Jamaica the place of choice to retire and age with dignity,” Sandra says.
She explains more about her work in this video:
Healthy Ageing
Sandra has plans to incorporate healthy ageing, deconstruct negative generalisation about older adults in the courses she teaches, and use social and traditional media to raise awareness among her students and the wider society.
“At the community level, I will plan, coordinate and implement training workshops to raise awareness of what it means to age with dignity and address ageist stereotypes. Collaborating with the Jamaica Association of Social Workers (JASW) members and social work and public health practicum students to undertake this. Furthermore, in partnership with older adult organisations, for example, the National Council for Senior Citizens (state entity), the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP; private entity), Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre (research centre, UWI, Mona) and churches across the island to organise intergenerational transmission sessions led by older adults,” she says.
At the policy level, Sandra is currently working on a dementia plan for Jamaica. As the lead on this project, she is working with her social work students, Alzheimer’s volunteers, JASW, her research team and is regularly having meetings with government officials.
By partnering with us, the benefits of UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge research and innovation can assist in Sandra and her work in raising awareness and organising more education about healthy ageing, as well as health in Jamaica.
UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge aims to help people remain active, productive, independent and socially connected across generations for as long as possible. It does this by enabling businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver beneficial products, services and business models.
We are very much looking forward to meeting Sandra at the conference, and learning more about her innovative education programmes for people living with dementia and networks, and care and ageing services in Jamaica.
Find out more about CommonAge’s activities, supported by UKRI at the Global Ageing Conference here.
Join us at the Global Ageing Conference!
Book your tickets now. Registrations closes 17 August – click on the image below for more details.
Support us
We at CommonAge strongly believe in supporting our colleagues from developing countries, to enable and empower them to overcome the challenges they face when working to improve and enhance the lives of older people, and advocate on their behalf.
We are a charity and our voluntary Board of Directors is committed to making positive changes to older people’s lives across the Commonwealth.
Donate, partner, become a member!
You can donate to us via
- Credit card: Visa, Mastercard and American Express
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- PayPal
Follow us on social media; we are active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.