Below are some screen shots of some positive comments via email and twitter following an article I co authored with my dear friend and colleague Shibley Rahman. If I was able to, I would have embedded the twitter comments, but alas, even after quite a few attempts, I gave up! So far, we have only…
I’ve been working on this article since before May 2017, but wanting to get it published as a response to the WHO The Global Plan of Action on the Public Health Response to Dementia 2017-2025 (Global Dementia Action Plan). This plan was unanimously adopted at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2017, and…
Following on from my last blog, I thought I’d share more on how dementia has changed my life, in particular how it has mostly been for the better. For instance, the image here of Snowy (TinTins dog) is a gift that was selected by Francis Wong, a wonderful colleague and now someone I am very…
This is the also the full article by Wong Kim Hoh the Straits Times Senior Writer, It Changed My Life: Author, activist and poet living with dementia, an interview done for The Straits Times in Asia last year during my trip to support Alzheimer’s Disease Association Singapore. Dementia definitely changed my life. Mostly, for the better. (Kate Swaffer, © 2018)…
Farewell 2017: the highs & lows As we come to the end of another busy year, I’ve been pondering on how things have changed over the last few years, and especially in 2017. Today is also the last day of my role as the SA 2017 Australian Of The Year, and whilst it should have…
When first diagnosed with dementia, I was devastated, truly fearful and in total shock, as I had no idea young people could get dementia. I cried for many weeks, and jogged for as long, as fast, and as often as possible, until the pain of running took over from the pain of the diagnosis, and…
A lazy Sunday reblog from 2012… partly about my diagnosis, and also on how distasteful the notion of being shut away in an activities room doing something truly mindless (to me) like Bingo is. Some of the comments on this blog are interesting too. It ends by saying: “Please don’t simply shut us away in the…
In 2016, the Australian Government announced it would establish Specialist Dementia Care Units (SDCUs) to support people who experience very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Many of you who read this blog will know, I don’t believe in BPSD, and in fact, feel strongly against this term, and the very negative labels it…
About Universal Health Coverage Day I’m still in Sharjah, hence it is still the December 12 here, which each year is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. I felt it important and extremely relevant to publish this blog today as UHC is something that has been missing in action for people with dementia and our families…
Not so long ago, I met a wonderful woman online called Minna Packer after she joined Dementia Alliance International. She definitely seemed to be struggling with having been diagnosed with dementia, and I remember that very dark place only too well. Minna inspires me, and I’m now pleased to say, has, perhaps without realising it, encouraged me to…
On Wednesday afternoon this week, my husband and I attended the State Parliamentary session of the Legislative Council in Parliament House, Adelaide. The Hon Kelly Vincent MLC, the fearless and remarkable young woman who is the Leader of the Dignity Party in SA, made a motion recognising me for winning the SA 2017 Australian Of…
My blog is a bit rambling today, as it talks about death and dying, cognitive capacity and other related topics. Sorry if I should have made it three or four blogs, but I’m here so rarely these days, I took the chance to finish writing it, and this is what I (therefore we) have ended…
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull is now only in my thoughts rather than hanging in my office, although I do have a photograph of him on my computer desktop and phone wallpaper. This year, more than ever before, I have relied on my seagull Jonathon, or at least the meaning of what he stands for, and I miss his…
My changing ability to work out not only how to cook, but what to cook, what to shop for, and so on, will ultimately result in the reality that sooner or later, we should be ordering in our weekly evening meals. My dear husband Peter, also known affectionately known as my BUB around the world, has,…
When I was 15 years old, I was elected as a school Captain, and that year wrote an essay titled “Girls and women as leaders: from Rhetoric to Reality.” I had probably read the term ‘Rhetoric to Reality’ somewhere in my readings, as back then I read many books each week for pleasure, as well…
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