Engaging people with dementia

I often ponder on the various activities and forms of ‘behaviour management’ or recreation offered to people with dementia in the community, and then in residential care homes. Why not go skydiving, dancing or fishing instead of playing Bingo…  I’d be happy to spend it on that! I suspect it is likely the reason activities such…

Spreading our wings

Prescribed Disengagement Puts people with dementia into a bubble One of disablement and disempowerment Sending us to aged care and death No words of life as we once knew it Nor signs it will ever return Not a glimpse of well being ahead Now is the time Like a beautiful butterfly Emerging from its cocoon  That…

‘Wandering’

I’ve read a lot of articles, tweets and blogs in the last few months about how to manage ‘wandering’ of people with dementia. Just for a change (!!!) I’ll be very up front here, and say they are annoying me greatly. When I go walking, even if I get lost, I am not a wanderer……

Loyalty, dementia and giving a damn!

Giving a shit is really what I’d have liked to used in the title, but I was trying not to be rude… Oh well, I’ve now failed on that front too!!! People with dementia need a lot of encouragement to keep going, to keep aspiring for change, to stay energised as advocates for themselves and…

Dementia friendly communities… the missing pieces

Australia along with many other countries including the UK is focused on becoming dementia friendly. The Associations and Organisations advocating for people with dementia and their family carers are sitting around tables, inviting guest speakers to present at events and teach others how to make their organisations and communities dementia friendly. The UK have been…

The Big Issue: Helping people help themselves

Most of you know one of my favourite organisations is The Big Issue. People with dementia who are homeless are also a very marginalised group, as they don’t have the funding for health care, and the public sector is a much slower pathway to diagnosis  for them than most others. This morning I watched a short…

In the shoes of a person with dementia

How would you feel being diagnosed with dementia? Last week I had the great pleasure to meet in person the wonderful Gill from Whose Shoes. It inspired me to pose a few simple questions to invite you to feel what it feels like in the shoes of a person with dementia. Would you like the idea that…

Saturday poem

Yesterday A week full of head spins On Monday a visit to the neurologist The results of the latest SPECT scan and the neuropsychology tests… Bad news The dementia has progressed clinically My frontal lobes are now involved Yet still I am not presenting as badly as the clinical picture indicates… Good news I wonder what this…

To blog or not about that topic?

This is probably the daily question for many people around the world, especially those of us who are writing about very personal issues! My private blog gets a real blast, where there is no holding back, no worrying about offending others, or being told my feelings are wrong, or being told off, as some bleaders…

The 2013 Younger Onset Dementia summit: A few pictures!

It was an exhausting few days, but very valuable and I feel more confident things will change. Not only for people with younger onset dementia, but for everyone with dementia. As we collectively work on eradicating the stigma and discrimination, though awareness campaigns and speaking out in general, the wider community will ultimately have no choice but…

Dementia and word finding

The creator of Moving your Soul asked me to reply to a question from one of their blog followers;  ‘I would like to know about  your symptoms at the beginning of your process before the diagnosis of dementia’. It started me thinking… and revisiting this time in my life, and the impact of not being able to…

Quick thinking

This wonderful article reminds me that where there is a will, there is a way! The gentleman’s quick thinking was ingenious, and has given me a laugh many times. I had the article stuck on my fridge for years, and only recently my youngest son read it and laughed out loud. He too thought it was…

Perseverance and dementia

English: perseverance  /ˌpərsəˈvi(ə)rəns/ Noun 1. Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. 2. Continuance in a state of grace leading finally to a state of glory. Synonyms persistence – tenacity – pertinacity – assiduity (source: google.com) This trait is beyond doubt one of the most important one required for facing dementia, especially for the…