Source: Steven Sabat

For Day 22 of Dementia Awareness Month 2015 #DAM2015, I am re-blogging a post written on Belledelettres’s Blog by a  friend in Scotland, who I had been online friends with and had the pleasure to meet in person in Edinburgh whilst over there this year. It is an important piece…

Professor Steven Sabat is one of the gurus (IMHO) in dementia care, and this image is from a power point presentation I found online when searching for an image to go with the blog below. You can download the presentation here Supporting or Undermining the Self-Esteem

Malignant Positioning vs Living Well with Dementia

Malignant positioning can occur when, after a diagnosis of dementia, a person’s words and behaviour are put down to symptoms of the condition, rather than being recognised as a genuine reaction to a situation. People may talk over and for people with dementia and take over doing things they can still do for themselves.

If carers assume that people with dementia cannot work, socialise or live without curbs and limitations, they banish them to a world of helplessness and hopelessness.

Shakespeare understood this so well. Read the full blog here…

The final sentence says it all;

If we are not careful, when we speak for a person with dementia or assume that they are talking nonsense, we take away an essential way of expressing themselves.