The Future of Aging Conference

Maaike is a general and mental health nurse and senior educationalist with over 20 years of substantial experience in dementia, palliative care, education, learning and leadership in a range of settings including acute hospitals, care homes, prisons, community care and hospices. She started her clinical career in Belgium, then moved to Aruba and since 2006 she has been based in the UK.

Maaike has a proven track record in designing, delivering and evaluating cutting edge and innovative programmes of learning which respond to current workforce needs and challenges.

She is highly skilled in working alongside organisations, leaders and executives who wish to invest in, and transform, their workforce by adopting the most creative and contemporary learning styles, methods and technologies.

As a learning and education consultant she has been working with national charities, hospices, integrated care systems and care homes. Maaike works both at St Christopher’s Hospice and Nightingale Hammerson which enables her to develop and facilitate opportunities for learning, education and best practice across both hospice and care home.

Maaike is passionate about teaching and inspiring people to meet their learning aspirations and potential through carefully designed, meaningful engagement and coaching both in person and virtually.

Helen Simmons is currently CEO of St Christopher’s Hospice, and has been a senior leader in the UK charity sector for over 25 years, after qualifying as a chartered accountant.

Helen was previously CEO of Nightingale Hammerson – an outstanding dementia and nursing care home organisation, where she started the first on site nursery for daily intergenerational activities and led the care homes through the Covid pandemic. Prior to that Helen was on the top team at Crisis (homelessness), Multiple Sclerosis Society, Diocese of London, and Jewish Care (social care), as well as trustee of Care England (Expert by Experience), NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations), CFG, RSCM, CAF and L’Ouverture. Helen lectures occasionally at City University in London and is on the Charity Fund Advisory Panel for Quilter Cheviot.

Dr Taylor has over 30 years of clinical experience in palliative care, working in hospice, community and hospital. She was Clinical Director at Hospice UK, 2014-17, advocating for improved access to palliative care in all settings including care homes.  In January 2020, she took on the medical leadership role to re-open Michael Sobell Hospice in West London. She has contributed to the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death on topics such as the ‘will to live’, power and gender issues.

She is a Senior Advisor to the Montreal International Congress on Palliative Care. She has co-developed a new resource, HPAL,  which curates essential palliative information for both family and professional caregivers. She was awarded an MBE for Services to Hospice Care following a nomination by a patient. Ros is a Clinical Trustee at Nightingale Hammerson Care Home.

Karen is a nurse by background with three nursing registrations (RMN, RNMH & RN) and has over 45 years nursing experience, most spent in dementia care in a various settings.

She undertook a PhD at University College London focusing on advance care planning in the context of palliative and end-of-life care in dementia. Upon successful completion became Head of Research and Publications at Dementia UK. She has several honorary academic positions at UK universities, including Nottingham University and De Montfort University, Leicester. Her research interests and connections with Dementia UK have enabled her to be involved on some large research studies, both nationally and internationally.

Her research interests include; dementia care, case management, care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care and advance care planning.

Professor Caroline Nicholson is a clinical academic nurse who champions Palliative Care for all. She holds a chair in Palliative Care and Ageing within the School of Health Science, University of Surrey. She is a current recipient of the Health Education England/ National Institute of Health Care Research Senior Clinical Lectureship in partnership with St Christopher’s Hospice.

Caroline leads a research programme focused on the duality of older people living and dying well over a life long-lived. She is particularly interested in the transitions that occurs in the last phase of life and supporting Integrative services and structures to enable care closer to home. She has published extensively in the field of frailty including co-editing the BGS guidance on end of life and frailty for clinicians across the multi-disciplinary team and is a core re member of the European Association for Palliative Care Reference group on Ageing and Palliative Care.

Zena’s career in health and social care has spanned across four decades, initially in domiciliary care and as a nursing auxiliary in acute and community settings, before qualifying as a mental health nurse in 2003. She has relished the challenge of less traditional roles throughout her career but always with a keen focus on improving the outcomes and experiences of care for older people, people living with dementia, their families and carers.

Zena completed her master’s degree in Mental Health at UEA School of Social Work and Psychology in 2013. and completed PhD studies at De Montfort University with her thesis “Relationships, morality and emotion: Their impact and influence on nursing home staff decision-making when a resident with advanced dementia deteriorates” in 2022.

Zena’s specialist interest includes the care of older people, dementia care, palliative and end of life care, continence management, case management, biopsychosocial care as well service integration and quality improvement. Zena is a published author of multiple journal articles and contributor to three books.

Given her various areas of interest, skills and experience Zena holds a portfolio of roles including, Social Care Nurse Fellow NIHR Nursing and Midwifery Office, NICHE Leeds Research Fellow University of Leeds, Regional Clinical Lead (dementia) NHS England, Consultant Editor Nursing Older People RCNi.

Nuno is Director of Research, Innovation and Community Engagement at Nightingale Hammerson with extensive experience in care leadership and management from day to day operations to strategic planning. He completed the MSc in Palliative Care and became a Clinical Nurse Specialist in London.

Nuno is passionate about dementia care, palliative care and care in general, led by the human values of compassion and team work. He effectively led teams to provide outstanding care in the most adverse circumstances, while meeting budgetary targets, reducing costs and being innovative.

Currently Nuno is leading the development and implementation of the Education and Research programmes within Nightingale Hammerson.

Isla Jones has worked at St Christopher’s hospice as a speech and language therapist since 2020 and prior to this has over 15 years experience working as a speech and language therapist with adults with communication and swallowing difficulties primarily in the acute setting.

Dr Gill Horne (RN, BScN, MScN, PhD, Dip Trop Nurse) has over 40 years of experience as a nurse and clinical leader in the UK and Canada; the majority being in specialist palliative care. She is the programme director of care services at Rowcroft Hospice in Devon.

Gill is working as part of a leadership team to develop and build a new model of nursing home care for people with advanced dementia and complex needs.

Her recent TOPOL digital fellowship has resulted in her leading several digital and artificial intelligence projects to enhance the experiences of people at the end of life and those living with dementia.

Clemence is the Registered Manager at Nightingale House. He has worked in adult social care sector for 12 years, a trained Mental Health Nurse with extensive experience in dementia care. He has a great passion for care of older people living with long term conditions including dementia and mental health.

He is an advocate for Relationship Centred Care, staff wellbeing and believes in continuous workforce upskilling. With a background in talking therapies, he is a champion for staff wellbeing and relaxation techniques. A Nursing Times workforce finalist for Nurse Manager of the Year 2021, Clemence has led service improvement projects on digital technologies and remain passionate about digitally enabled better care.