Published today, I wrote this a while ago for The Huffington Post… The copyright terms allow me to publish it in full, which I have done for my very lazy blog today! I Was Diagnosed With Dementia At 49 And It Was A Gift There are more than 47 million people diagnosed with dementia and I am…
Whilst I have been too unwell to work, study, or do anything much of any real usefulness for the last couple of weeks, various things have been happening behind the scenes, the product of past work. My second volume of poetry arrived, quite unexpectedly, in the mail this last week, and is already available online.…
I don’t especially like the following poem (whose author is unknown to me)… Perhaps at the end stage of dementia when I am dying, I’ll change my mind. In the meantime, the best of me has not yet gone but still to come Even if I am changing! My response to this poem is below. Sometimes…
Todays blogpost is an update of various opportunities to be involved or to see more of the work of DAI. Please also support us with a donation whenever you can, as the work we do directly supports people living with dementia to have a better quality of life. For those of you who missed it,…
Dementia Alliance International has a new survey about dementia friendly communities for people with dementia and their care partners (meaning an unpaid family carer or significant other who is actively supporting them). We are very keen to hear your thoughts and that these campaigns and initiatives mean to you, and if they have positively impacted…
With permission from Alzheimer’s Australia, I am sharing their latest survey: This year for Dementia Awareness Month we are asking you to tell us about your social connections and contact with family. Please take our anonymous survey by clicking here.https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DAM2016 It will only take 3-4 minutes. We will publish these results in September, 2016 to raise…
I was recently published in the Australian Journal of Dementia Care (AJDC), and my article has been republished the Aged Care Report Card this week as well. You can read the full article, What people with dementia want from residential care homes, where I explain what people with dementia have said they want from residential care, based on my own experience…
This is the most common thing I hear from people about my diagnosis of dementia, and is possibly the most common others with dementia talk about. Even some people with dementia say it to me; yes, even when they themselves know how insensitive it is to hear it said. It is an odd conundrum, and one…
How do people, who are living with the symptoms of dementia and which is causing increasing cognitive disabilities, including memory loss, reduced cognitive abilities and changing emotions and behavioural responses, work together cohesively and without getting upset occasionally? One of the things I hear over and over again from this supporting someone with dementia, relates…
It is Saturday in Australia, and the first thing I’d like to do is say Happy Birthday to Shibley Rahman, a friend and colleague who will wake up in London, hopefully to a sunny day! It is not a great shot of me, but the flowers surrounding the entrance of the Bloomsbury Hotel in London…
Later today, there is to be a Twitter chat about Language and dementia, so if you want to join us use the hashtag #demphd and you’ll find me tweeting as @KateSwaffer plus you might find @DementiaAlliance and many others getting involved. The debate on language is usually rather robust, and it will be a good lead in…
It has certainly been an interesting couple of weeks in England and Scotland, and on my last day here when we had planned to visit some dear friends south of London, we have both been too unwell so instead I have attempted to catch up on a few things like blogging, especially as I don’t think I have written…
The high and lows of social media continue to confound me! I joined LinkedIn some time ago, and get a huge number of requests to connect now from people who I don’t know personally. Because members on LinkedIn profess it is a ‘professionals’ site. What a load of rubbish!!! So many professionals on LinkedIn must be living under a mushroom. Call…
For many years, I have written about the things that stand out to me as wrong about the way dementia is seen, talked about, or managed for those of us living with it, not only dying from it. One issue that is very prevalent is that many doctors still do not bother to tell some of…
It seems I have written on Dementia advocacy before Who’d have known It’s more pain than joy It polarises people Sadly makes it more ‘them and us’ People without dementia everywhere Wanting large pieces of the proverbial pie Using people with dementia To take sides and support their business goals Or their personal agendas Being referred…
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