I’m delighted to share the following video by a dear friend and collegue of mine Mary Beth Wighton, produced in collaboration with Jessica Luh Kim. MB’s words resonate with the work done by so many of us over many decades towards realising the human rights of all people with dementia. My sincere thanks to them…
Here are the links to three podcasts hosted by ‘With All Due Respect‘ I was interviewed for last year, which I probably forgot to share here. My beliefs about the dementia-friendly iniatives is that they are unfriendly to people with dementia, and wporse, are a waste of time and money; money that should be used…
The blog post explores the Welsh concept of “Hiraeth,” representing a deep longing for home, often felt by individuals with dementia in institutional settings. It critiques how the healthcare system misinterprets their distress as clinical issues instead of a natural response to loss and displacement, emphasizing the need for compassionate care and community integration.
In chapter one of the book, Digital Convergence: Better Solutions for People with Dementia, edited by Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Thu Ha Dang, Tuan Anh Nguyen, and Sasan Adibi, I examine the dual nature of digital solutions for people living with dementia, highlighting both their potential to enhance independence and the risks they pose to human rights.…
Yes, just as it is usually non-Indigenous people who are responsible for racism, people without dementia, and even some people with dementia, are partly responsible for stigma, discrimination, the continuance of rights violations, and the systemic injustices and exclusion many are still experiencing. The dementia friendly initiatives have done nothing to improve things either, other…
As a person living with a diagnosis of a rare young onset dementia and a retired (?!) activist engaged repeatedly in research, policy, and advocacy spaces, I argue that research which fails to achieve its stated aims is not simply ineffective—it constitutes a breach of disability rights as articulated in the United Nations Convention on…
Synopsis from Wikipedia: “Dopesick focuses on “the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction” across the U.S. on how individuals and families are affected by it, on the alleged conflicts of interest involving Purdue Pharma and various government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Justice, and finally, on the legal case against Purdue Pharma and…
Author: Kate Swaffer © 2026 Despite decades of research, and public awareness efforts — including the widespread proliferation of the non-inclusive dementia-friendly campaigns— people diagnosed with a dementia continue to experience pervasive issues including stigma, structural discrimination, and social exclusion. These outcomes persist not because of a lack of awareness per se. They persist primarily because…
Introduction to Dementia Rehabilitation: This free course aims to raise awareness, change attitudes, and present evidence for the need and provision of rehabilitation as part of post diagnostic care for all people with dementia and their care partners. It is suitable for a mixed audience, including health care professionals, peopel living with dementia, care partners…
Image source: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/national-centre-for-healthy-ageing/living-labs/Improving-access-to-rehabilitation-for-people-with-dementia The right to rehabilitation of everyone, including people with dementia is one of my pet topics, and anyone who’s followed me here for a while will know I’ve been writing about and campaigning for dementia to be supported as a condition causing disabilities, and for proactive rehabilitation immediately after diagnosis for all…
Dementia is not in itself a disability, but reframing the symptoms of dementia as disabilities aligns directly with a rights-based approach under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), rather than just treating them as biomedical “deficits”. This graphic provides a visual example of some of the disabilities people acquire as a result of…
I’m forever hopeful of positive change… For so many things related to a dementia diagnosis, dementia care, disability support, respecful language, and ageing in general, as well as the many rights violations people with dementia continue to experience. This includes disbanding the harmful labels currently still being used to descibe people with dementia, or our…
In the world of mental illness, and of dementia, people are systematically locked up i.e. physically restrained, and chemically restrained. If you have dementia, even worse, you are segregated from all others, remembering of course, the only others this is done to without consent, are convicted criminals. Check out not only the video, but the…
It is time to write the second Edition of this book, which will be an Audiobook, especially as this first edition needs an update. I’m looking forward to being able to launch the audiobook, but especially to updating a few of the chapters in my first book, as not only have my opinions changed since…
My blogpost today is to invite interested health professionals to participate in a study run by Monash University. A/Prof. Michele Callysa is the lead Chief Investigator (CI) on this project. I am also a CI, along with many other colleagues. Scroll to the bottom of this blog for more information, and for who to contact…
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