I’m working on what I believe are the true needs of a person with dementia, and would love your contributions. There is so much written on this topic by professional experts, and very little written about it by the real experts, that is, the people with dementia. Mostly, I think people with dementia need others to accept us as…
When we are born, we cry to be fed, cuddled and loved, or have our nappies changed. Then we start to crawl and walk, and ultimately have to remember how to do it. It’s not long before our parents start reading to us, hoping it will make us intelligent. Then comes the books for us to…
Remember when is the beginning of so many conversations when meeting with friends or family whom you have shared moments with. At family reunions, school reunions, reunions with colleagues, and so on, all rely heavily on memory for you to be able to fully participate. Another one so often spoken is, don’t you remember, for…
Yesterday I started late with blogging, and with the fuzzy brain I’m experiencing later in the day, and a few wonderful interruptions with friends, it was a late posting, which I had trouble formatting! I’ve been thinking a lot about the disability of not being able to remember – or recall – things about your own life, and…
This last couple of weeks seems to have been getting information about the meaning of Well-ness, and how it applies to people in aged and dementia care, a worthy topic for my blog. The three sets of questions below come directly from the PDF in the Dementia Care News blog, Measuring Wellbeing: Practitioners’ Guide (NEF).…
People with dementia need to create a new image of who they are and who they are becoming, and how they do this depends very much on their personality, life story, general health, spirituality, and social environment. This can impact significantly on how others treat them as life is about belonging, and when you no…
Now that the Australian government have recognised dementia as a National Health Priority, we will all be watching and listening carefully to see how this decision translates into change, reform and improvements in research, diagnosis, treatment, service provision and care for people diagnosed with dementia and their carers (BUBS). As this historic decision has been…
Many have called today D-Day! The Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, and federal Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, formally proposed that dementia be made a National Health Priority Area (NHPA) at a meeting of all state and territory health ministers in Sydney. Alzheimer’s Australia and the almost 300,000 people living with a…
At a focus group with a group of dementia consumers today, Bingo was mentioned as an activity used in aged and dementia care. The room was full of people who themselves may one day be facing aged or dementia care, myself included. Although it wasn’t the topic we were there to discuss, I decided to…
A very short blog today, as I am too angry to write something constructive. If I posted what I have written so far, it would be unfair to myself, and possibly to some others. But suffice to say, it is about yet another instance of a person with dementia being made to look incapable of being…
People with dementia face an identity crisis – who am I – who will I become? One major fear is the loss of self associated with dementia, and we face an existential crisis of identity. Our sense of self is shattered with this new label of dementia. Who am I, if I can no longer…
I’ve had two compliments on the new look of my blog, so thank you Eliza and Pete for that. It is always pleasing to hear positive remarks, but I’m sure there’ll be some who prefer the old format, or who hate both. As with a landslide election, it is hard to please everyone all of…
Relationships with others change after a diagnosis of dementia, especially with those very close to us. Some become stronger, but many disappear. Our children have mostly acted as if nothing is wrong, and manage any obvious changes as best they can. Our way of coping is to use humour; for example initially they used to introduce me…
Confusion is one of the more significant features of dementia, especially in the elderly, and can be identified as physiological or situational. Physiological causes can be linked to some of the processes of aging; as blood vessels change and the blood vessels harden, insufficient amounts of oxygen and nourishment pass through to the brain. These…
Resilience refers to an individuals’ capacity to successfully adapt to change and stressful events in healthy and constructive ways. Building resilience is important if we are to strengthen our capacity and our skills in order to reduce emotional and mental health problems, and to cope with crises and illness. It is a skill worth developing…
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