Nov 10, 2014
Since returning from the Alzheimer Europe conference in Glasgow I’ve been thinking a lot about stigma and why it clings to dementia. It simply didn’t exist at all for the three days I was there, replaced instead by a stimulating buzz of optimism and positive...
Oct 26, 2014
The tone of the 2014 Alzheimer Europe conference was set from the moment I arrived and bumped straight into the force of nature that is Helga Rohra. I’d read about this 60-year-old German – and listened to her powerful words – many times, but never met her in person. ...
Oct 20, 2014
This is the story of how a (very tall) man found his vocation. It started in 2000 when an indomitable woman moved into a care home that failed to see her for who she was. Nine years later – via France and India – her son-in-law Tim Lloyd-Yeates set up a charity...
Oct 3, 2014
Silver Sunday. How easily it slides off the tongue. It’s happening this weekend so it seemed a good subject to write about. I’m sure many people will have mixed views about it; I thought I was one of them. But having carried out a bit of research I’m far...
Sep 26, 2014
Rachel Mortimer is an artist. She is also a qualified Montessori teacher and, among other jobs she’s held, she’s worked as a carer. At the moment she’s studying for an Open University psychology degree. She’s clearly someone with many strings to her bow. But the...
Sep 19, 2014
At the end of a White Paper on change and transformation in the NHS comes a case study from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It involves a seemingly simple, grassroots project called Living Well, in which older people have collaborated with voluntary sector...
Sep 12, 2014
Just as I was about to post this week’s blog I set it aside in favour of another. I did so because of a remarkable interview on Radio 4 between John Humphrys, the Today programme’s resident Rottweiler, and Denise Stevens, who cares for her husband Mike, who...
Aug 28, 2014
Elizabeth is Missing is an unusually bold and clever novel: a 70-year-old mystery narrated by an old lady with the beginnings of dementia. Maud is funny and sharp. She is observant and self- aware. She is also living through what must be one of the most frightening...
Aug 1, 2014
When I heard about the three different eras of dementia that have occurred in Japan – a country whose treatment of those living with the condition is said to be one of the most progressive in the world – I was intrigued and vowed to learn more. It’s taken me a few...
Jul 7, 2014
I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a blog about risk and people living with dementia for some time now, and a recent Times article with the provocative headline, “People with dementia told to start living dangerously” provided the impetus I needed. The fact...
