In an article by Jeff Goins titled The purpose of pain, his final comments are; “Something transformational happens when we go to places of deep pain and let our hearts be stirred. Compassion, a word of which I am quite fond, literally means “to suffer with.” It would make sense that compassion needs pain to … Continue reading »
Posted in June 2012 …
Biderman’s Chart of Coersion and Residential aged care
I’ve been following a blog written by a victim of the sex trade, and I find her writings insightful, sad and incredibly brave. In one of her blogs, she talked about Biderman’s Chart of Coercion, and how it could be applied to sex workers. I’ve been reading about it, and thinking about it a lot … Continue reading »
Dementia and the burden of disbelief
There are many days when I talk to others with dementia who tell me about how they feel when people don’t believe they have dementia, or who say things like you aren’t any different to me, or I can’t see any signs of dementia in you, and so on. It is demoralising and ends up … Continue reading »
Socrates
I’m with Socrates on this, as it seems to me that real knowledge is about knowing that you don’t really know anything. I do a lot of thinking about my thinking, and am constantly delving into the recesses of my mind to try to … Continue reading »
Passive-competitive?
‘Passive-competitive’ is a term I must have invented as I have not been able to find in the text books, and not even on Mr Google. ‘Passive-aggressive’ is a common and well known term written up on Mr Google and in many text books, and if you have ever had anyone in your life who … Continue reading »
Tattoos, art and dementia
Reblogged from Creating life with words: Inspiration, love and truth: … I just don’t get them! A blog follower who signed up to my blog last year has them. Almost all of the staff at the nail salon I go to have them, except the owner of the salon who is like me, and is … Continue reading »
Medication and dementia
Well, it has come to this… I can no longer manage my medications. Even passing over the control of the scripts to my pharmacist and doctor last week is not enough as this does not prevent me taking the wrong time or days tablets at home, or taking tomorrows as well as today’s tablets, today. … Continue reading »
Alzheimer’s World – The New Reality by Bob De Marco
My blog today is an article written by Bob De Marco, on his blog The Alzheimer’s Reading Room; it is well worth the read, and continues to show his incredible ability to have turned the pain and struggle of his role as a carer for his mother Dotty who passed away in May this year, … Continue reading »
Dementia: A world view
“One of the greatest challenges of our time is what I’d call the quiet crisis, one that steals lives and tears at the hearts of families, but that relative to its impact is hardly acknowledged. We’ve got to treat this like the national crisis it is. We need an all-out fight-back against this disease; one … Continue reading »
Learning Life from Illness stories
Today, I am simply promoting a book I have contributed to, and will advise of the launch at a later date. Here is a snippet of what it says on the flyer: “Learning life from illness stories brings together the stories of fourteen people who have lived with serious illness, either their own of that of … Continue reading »
Radio National play: “Also A Mirror”
Following on from my blog yesterday, I have the details of the radio play about dementia, and as it is such a wonderful production, it deserves another plug! Over the last 18 months, ECH has worked very closely with Adelaide based youth theatre company, Urban Myth, firstly to produce a stage play, Also a Mirror, … Continue reading »
Dementia and storytelling
Two people in Adelaide met some time ago and had this wild idea of inspiring young people to become involved in the world of dementia and memory loss through drama. One is the Artistic Director or Urban Myth Drama Group, the other works for the ECH Residential Care group in SA. Last year, after almost … Continue reading »
The value of public opinion
Bob de Marco wrote recently on The Alzheimer’s Reading Room, “I lost track of how many times Dotty said, ‘get out, I don’t need you here, I can take care of myself’. This was particularly hurtful because I had dropped out of the world to take care of Dotty full time. Twenty four hours a day, … Continue reading »
Dementia blogs and websites
Blogging about dementia has been one hell of a ride! So far, it has provided my husband and I with incredible support, but also occasionally some distress. It’s been interesting thinking about the last few days through the night. I always look in the mirror once I have been able to put aside the hurt or feelings … Continue reading »
Why speak out?
Richard Taylor gently reminded me yesterday of the Abraham Lincoln quote, about only pleasing some of the people some of the time. Thank you. I feel vaguely fragile after another week of taking deeply personal risks by speaking out honestly and receiving more rebukes or disagreement with the way I feel about things. My dear … Continue reading »
