Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Morse Country

Been to a conference at Green College, Oxford today, and after lunch climbed to the top of the Radcliffe Observatory, which is in the grounds. Its not a high building, but affords great views over low-rise Oxford. There's hardly a building over three stories in the entire place, which means that the many spires can be clearly seen. I half expected to see Inspector Morse's old jaguar in the quadrangle. Only thing missing was a dead body. For most of its life the building has been home to medical research, but its only really suitable for telescopes. Since its mostly glass, its too hot and cold for most uses. It was built to observe a display of some sort by planet Venus, but in true British fashion was finished four years after Venus had been and gone. Today, the Observatory is not used for much at all.

The conference was organised by RESEC (Research in Specialist and Elderly Care), and was concerned with how we approach treatment of the range of illnesses that collectively we refer to as dementia. My interest in neurological illness flows from the work I'm doing for The European Care Group. Its shocking that there are predicted to be 2 million sufferers of the many forms of dementia in 15 years time. I'm not at all convinced that Government has woken up to the implications of this. I'm very pleased that European Care are taking training in the dementia field seriously and supporting research through RESEC. We're planning another Conference in Wales. Its time we started treating the elderly with more respect. This blog is not often given over to moralising. Sorry.

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