We are delighted Exhilda Siame a US-Based Zambian Health and Media consultant has accepted our scholarship to attend the Global Ageing Network/Curaviva Global Ageing Conference, 18-21 September 2017, Montreux, Switzerland.
Passionate about Ageing and with backgrounds in both journalism and nursing, Exhilda has spent close to 30 years working as a journalist in her native country of Zambia and as a Registered Nurse/Consultant in the United States.
She is the Founder/CEO of newly established Healthcare Consultancy LLC, Umulyango Consultants. This organisation intends to collaborate with emerging healthcare markets in Africa to set up Long Term Care (LTC) systems that will support Aging as an urgent health issue in Africa.
Her interest in ageing came accidentally while working in an America newsroom where she wrote obituaries. She was surprised to learn people in the USA aged into their 90s and 100’s.
“Coming from Zambia where the life expectancy was only 37.5 years at that time, I started wondering what made the Americans live so long,” says Exhilda. “This curiosity led me into nursing where I obtained my Associate, Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Nursing and Healthcare Systems Administration.”
Having worked in Acute care, Hospice, Homecare and the traditional LTC, where she spent the bulk of her practice, Exhilda has a wealth of experience working with older people. She worked her way up from floor nurse to Nurse Consultant in both for-profit and non-profit organisations helping set up LTC systems from a State/Federal Regulatory and nursing perspective.
Over the years, Exhilda’s practice has entailed participating in interdisciplinary teams from a structural to systems set-up, from a clinical perspective. As a nurse clinician, she is responsible for ensuring patient safety and practices that ensure that patients’ overall healthcare needs are met. She is also responsible for monitoring and ensuring facilities are properly fiscally reimbursed for all appropriate services provided.
Exhilda’s favorite part of her practice is working with the dementia community, and as a diversity educator. She thrives on educating healthcare workers- especially those from Africa – to understand dementia as a disease. She has recently combined her journalistic and healthcare specialties to present a radio program on ageing in Zambia through a partnership with a radio station in the capital City of Lusaka. As a frequent guest presenter, Exhilda takes calls from the public who are often asking what dementia is.
“My goal is to educate the Zambian public on ageing and more specifically on dementia and help diffuse the notion that dementia is witchcraft,” says Exhilda.
From the conference in Switzerland, Exhilda hopes to make connections and learn about the latest data and trends on Ageing in Africa as well as globally. Above all, she is ready to make connections that will offer her opportunities to help set up health care systems with the private sector in Africa and/or African governments.