After watching the movie Hidden Figures on a flight  few weeks ago, I took a photo of one of the scenes, as per the image here of a power point slide which is being used in almost all of my presentations now, to highlight the fact we are segregating people with dementia by locking them into secure dementia units. This is (should be?) against the law, and is 100% a breach of human rights.

Many state it is being done for their or others safety, but it is being done, with no thought of human rights, to make it easier for staff to ‘manage’ them.

The only other cohorts I know who are locked up are some people with very severe mental illness, and a lot of legal sanctions must be met to be able to do that, or convicted criminals…

Frankly, people with dementia would more often get better treatment in a real prison. Fresh air every single day, a gymnasium, their own televisions, and for most, things to do to take away the boredom of each day. Many in prison even take up formal studies.

I made a comment to an online friend (past RN in Aged care) on twitter about one ‘distressed’ comment from a person in the audience at a Melbourne conference who rather aggressively ‘bit my head off’ about some of the things I was saying during my presentation.

The very helpful response from my Twitter friend was: “Biting one’s head off in a forum is “behaviour”: it indicates stress; resistance to change AND One man’s ‘segregation’ is another’s ‘specialization’.“

This is merely one example of “the challenging behaviours of others, not of people with dementia, and maybe it would be helpful if we all reminded ourselves;

“Safety is what we want for those we love, and autonomy is what we want for ourselves.” (Keren Wilson)