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Largest Midwestern Dementia Conference Held In St. Paul

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Hundreds met in St. Paul Saturday to learn more about a disease affecting nearly 5 million people across the country.

The RiverCentre hosted the largest dementia conference in the Midwest -- the Alzheimer's Association's Meeting of the Minds.

The conference featured dozens of sessions ranging from what to do after a diagnosis to looking at the disease's impacts.

Former WCCO anchor Mike Binkley held one of those sessions about the importance of recording conversations with Alzheimer's patients to be able to capture memories to look back on.

WCCO has been documenting Dr. Paul Quinn's story for more than two years. The Stillwater family has been focusing lately on living in the moment.

Saturday, his daughter Katie told us he is much more quiet in large groups, following conversations is difficult and once very detailed stories are foggier than ever before.

"He's always been a big storyteller. The stories are less accurate now," Katie said. "They often are a meld of two or three stories and he still really enjoys telling them but it's a little bit hard to hear because you know that things aren't as straight in his mind as he thinks they are."

Around 1,300 people attended Saturday's conference.

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