University of Regina Centre on Aging and Health to host 2012 Regina Brain Awareness Week film event

News Release Release Date: March 14, 2012 9:00 a.m.

For Regina Brain Awareness Week 2012, on Thursday, March 15^th, 2012, the University of Regina Centre on Aging and Health is showing Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, which is the true story of French journalist and ELLE magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby.  Based on his memoir, the film depicts Bauby’s life after a massive stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome.  Mentally aware of his surroundings, but paralyzed except for movement in his left eye, Bauby wrote his memoir using only blinks of his left eyelid.

A discussion with Dr. David Malloy of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies as well as representatives from the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region will follow.

The free film screening and discussion is open to the public and will be held at 6:30 p.m.  in Education Building Room 191 on the University of Regina main campus. Free parking for the event will be available in Lot 15, Area ‘M’.

Brain Awareness Week (BAW), held each year in March, unites the efforts of universities, hospitals, patient groups, government agencies, schools, service organizations, and professional associations worldwide in a celebration of the brain. This is the seventeenth year of Brain Awareness Week (and the 10^th Regina Brain Awareness Week) and the number of events worldwide continues to grow.  Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW runs from March 12-18.

The Centre on Aging and Health is a research Centre at the University of Regina. Researchers affiliated with the Centre are researching a wide variety of issues relating to aging and health. Centre research includes, but is not limited to, investigations of better ways of assessing and managing pain in older persons, culturally sensitive end of life care for Aboriginal persons, falls, the psychological impact of waiting lists and ethical issues in aging and health.  Previous lectures have covered topics as diverse as driving in old age, pain management in older adults, ethical issues relating to the care of seniors who reside in long-term care facilities, the health of North American immigrants, strategies for preventing falls in older adults, behavioural health in late life and others.

For more information about the Centre on Aging and Health, please visit their website at http://uregina.ca/hadjistt/centre_index.htm or contact Scott J. Wilson, CAH Administrator, at 306.337.8477 or by email at scott.j.wilson@uregina.ca.

For more information on Brain Awareness Week, visit the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and European Dana Alliance for the Brain website at http://www.dana.org/brainweek/.