'Working with the elderly can be more rewarding than other forms of health care.' That was the message from a Norfolk conference aimed at changing attitudes to old age.

Dozens of medical students attended the Positive About Ageing conference today, which aimed to breakdown some of the stigma and encourage people entering the health and social care profession to consider a job in caring for the elderly.

Elderly care is traditionally the least popular area of the health and care industry, said conference organisers from the University of East Anglia.

However, there were plenty of reasons to be positive about getting older and it was time to change people's attitudes, an audience of more than 150 people were told at the conference at the John Innes Centre, near Norwich.

The event heard from keynote speakers Willie Cruickshank, director of the Norfolk and Suffolk Dementia Alliance, and Richard Jackson, of Mancroft International, and there were a number of workshops including students experiencing old age through a 'time machine'.

Charles Miller-Fik, employability fellow at the UEA Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, who organised the conference, said he was keen to ensure that compassion and kindness was never lost from the care setting.

'Working in elderly care has historically been one of the least popular areas to work in and one of the aims of this conference is to raise awareness that it can be a very exciting area to work in and people have to change mind sets.

'I want to see it as a positive and inspiring event that gets people to think differently about the ageing process and encourage newly qualified health professionals to work in elderly care. It is more rewarding. Generally in elderly care, you are with a patient longer and can build up a therapeutic relationship with them and supportive relationship,' he said.

Mr Miller-Fik said that two-thirds of attendees were students and staff from the School of Nursing Sciences, Norwich Medical School and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences.

'Ageing is part of life. Other cultures around the world, like Asia, have a far more positive view of ageing. Unfortunately, it is bad care that hits the headlines, but the majority of doctors, nurses and health professionals provide excellent services,' he said.

Other speakers included Norfolk's first Admiral Nurse, Zena Aldridge, who helps dementia patients in the community and there was a 50 minute performance of Trevor Smith's award-winning play on a care home resident's battle with dementia.

Mr Cruickshank added that people can also live well with dementia and there were ways that care home staff and health workers could help unlock patients' memories. The dementia alliance has developed a Let's Talk app to help professionals to get dementia patients to recall memories from their teenage and young adult years.