There have been five interactive workshops on 'Quality of Life (qol) for Persons with Dementia and Family Caregivers' held at ADI conferences. This series is presented by Sube Banerjee (The Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom); Barry Gurland (Stroud Center for Quality of Life, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA) ; and Nori Graham (Alzheimer's Disease International, London, United Kingdom).The series is coordinated by the Stroud Center for Quality of Life at Columbia University.

The aim of this series is to develop a framework for understanding and intervention; and to generate ways of using this to influence and aid service planning and delivery. Previous workshops covered:

• The nature of qol (Washington, 2000)
• What improves/reduces qol (Christchurch, 2001)
• Actions promoting/impeding qol (Barcelona,2002)
• The impact of relationships on qol (Dominican Republic, 2003)
• The importance of choice in qol (Kyoto, 2004)

A workshop scheduled for 2005 in Istanbul will focus on the role of spirituality in enhancing qol.

All those who attend are deemed participants and are encouraged to contribute verbal and written statements as they wish on the topic of the symposium. These workshops are spontaneous in spirit. All contributions are recorded, combined with previous workshop texts, and summarized at the opening of each symposium. This web site is a product of the contributions made by participants at the series so far; and will be expanded by entries from users of the web site.