Dementia

23/01/2017 • 7:38 pm 1

Love itself lives on even when the memories fail

Frances Freeman… This is me with my mother she is 94 – she is looked after at the Newquay Nursing home in Cornwall.
She has Vascular Dementia – it’s massively tough to live with she has no concept of time passing, she gets very angry with the world. However, this is a happy moment she was telling me that my Father has just been promoted (not true, he died more than 10 years ago)

Joanna Slater… I work with Frances and hear from her day to day how hard it has been to cope with her mother with Vascular Dementia. Frances is a wonderful daughter. When a loved one suffers from such a delibating disease where do you start and how do you keep the communication going. Frances keeps that communication going even when her mother talks of such things that is in her imagination. This photo shows the love that never ends no matter what. Bless you Frances and bless your darling mum xxxxx

Such a wonderful photo, Love itself lives on.

fran

Filed under: Dementia, Dementia

30/08/2016 • 3:05 pm 0

New dementia training package for nursing staff by Steve Ford for Nursing Times

A free training package aimed at educating health and social care staff about dementia has been launched by Health Education England.

The training package provides a basic introduction to dementia and how it affects people and their loved ones. It was launched today by Health Education England through a collaboration with the University of Bedfordshire, Oxford Brookes University, University of Northampton and University of West London.

The two-year project was commissioned by HEE’s Thames Valley branch, with the aim of improving professional knowledge, service delivery and provision for patients with dementia. Part of it included a review of existing dementia awareness training, with the findings then used to develop the subsequent training package.

Melsina Makaza, senior lecturer in mental health nursing and dementia lead at Bedfordshire, jointly led a pilot of the package involving 1,500 clinical and non-clinical staff from a variety of health and social settings in 2015. She said: “People often have this misconception that when someone gets dementia, that’s it, the person is gone. It’s sometimes seen as a death sentence. “But that’s not true,” she said. “The person is still there and we need to make sure health and social care professionals at every level know how best to help them in a person-centred way.”

Click on the link to read more

New dementia training package for nursing staff

Filed under: Dementia, Dementia

24/05/2016 • 7:10 pm 0

Living with Dementia: Chris’s Story – To be aired on BBC 1 Thurs 2 Jun 2016

In a powerful, multi-textured documentary filmed over almost two years, one family living with dementia reveals what life is really like behind closed doors.

Using CCTV cameras, video diaries and a small,immersive film crew, the programme follows 55-year-old Chris Roberts from north Wales as he, his wife Jayne and his youngest daughter Kate come to terms with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

From making the decision to choose his own care home to writing a living will, getting lost in his own house and not recognising his family, Chris chronicles his changing life as his independence slips away. Once a businessman and a keen biker, he now struggles to walk and talk – his life is beset by frustration, yet his remarkable insight allows us into his world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07dxmyh

Filed under: Dementia, Alzheimers, Panorama

23/02/2016 • 6:03 pm 0

How do you know you have got dementia? A group of people share their experiences of diagnosis

Grief, guilt, disbelief, denial, and even relief seven people living with dementia share how they felt the day they were diagnosed, and how they have come to terms with it since.

Being diagnosed with the neurological condition dementia terrifies many people who think their world is falling in. Many people have feelings which range from despair to denial, to guilt and relief.

A special project to try and raise awareness of the realities of dementia diagnosis has taken the stories of eight people from around the UK and asked them how they felt the day they were diagnosed.

They talk about how their feelings progressed and how they came to terms with their diagnosis and how they re-built their lives.

Click on the link to read their stories

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/how-you-know-you-dementia-7419262?

Filed under: Dementia, Dementia, diagnosed

12/01/2016 • 6:42 pm 0

The dementia timebomb: People fear it MORE than cancer – yet it receives only a tenth of the funding

Dame Gill Morgan is chair of NHS Providers, representing hospital trusts
Says dementia research lags 25 years behind the progress made in cancer
Advances in drug development will be too late for 850,000 sufferers

Dementia research is lagging 25 years behind the progress made in cancer, a leading health chief warned today. People fear Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia more than cancer – yet dementia research receives only a tenth of the funding. Dame Gill Morgan, chair of NHS Providers, said yesterday: ‘Dementia is, in my view, the cruellest disease.

‘It is a cruel disease because your family watch you declining, and they lose the person, but they keep the body. ‘Studies show that dementia is now the most feared disease, it is more feared than cancer. ‘It is the thing that people do not want to get when they are older. ‘One of the thing that makes it very difficult, is that we really are not fully clear what the biological causes are. ‘If you compare it to cancer, and the knowledge that we have about the biology and genetics of the disease, cancer is probably 20 to 25 years ahead.’

Dame Gill, whose organisation represents most English NHS trusts, said that advances currently being made in dementia drug development will come too late to help the 850,000 people currently living with the disease in Britain.

Click on the link to read more

http://goo.gl/BBzS6V

Pictured, CT scan of sufferers’ brains

Filed under: Dementia, cruel disease, Dementia

30/11/2015 • 5:35 pm 0

Dementia assistance cards

This is the interview Caron Sprake did last week for her local BBC TV station about the Dementia assistance cards. These are FREE to download and if you need help making some, please contact http://www.caroncares.co.uk/contact-us/

Filed under: Dementia, Dementia

21/11/2015 • 9:04 pm 1

Michael Parkinson warns that visiting some care homes dealing with dementia patients is ‘like going back to Victorian times’

Veteran broadcaster’s mother died with dementia at the age of 96
He has now warned others about conditions in some care homes
Sir Michael says people caring for relatives not to be afraid to complain

Sir Michael Parkinson has urged those looking after people with dementia to check care homes very carefully. He has likened the ‘appalling standards’ he saw after his own mother’s battle with dementia as ‘like going back to the Victorian times and bedlam.’ The veteran broadcaster and former chat show host has urged people caring for relatives with dementia not to be afraid to ask difficult questions or complain if they are worried about the standard of care their loved ones are receiving.

He said: ‘You should be very careful – if you can be and you have a choice – about where you send them. And keep your eye out and don’t be frightened of complaining. Ask what’s happening, what’s going on, because sometimes the care is not sufficient, I have to say.’ Sir Michael’s mother Freda Rose died with dementia at the age of 96 after battling the condition for several years. He has spoken movingly about the pain of watching his ‘sharp and articulate’ mother become ‘a total stranger.’ He said that Freda, who was cared for in several homes of varying standards while she was ill, hated being patronised or shouted at despite not being deaf.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3328025/Michael-Parkinson-s-warning-Victorian-dementia-care-homes.html

Filed under: Care Homes, Dementia, Elderly, care homes, Dementia, Michael Parkinson

07/10/2015 • 4:51 pm 0

The Dementia Assistance Card

Who is behind this service?

Caron Sprake. An award winning blogger, her blog www.caroncares.co.uk offers advice and information for anyone caring for the elderly.
Caron is a Purple Angel Ambassador working in the UK to raise awareness about Dementia.

The dementia assistance card provides a clear and concise way for someone with dementia to ask for help in shops, restaurants etc and shows the contact number of a relative or friend in the case of an emergency. The Dementia Assistance Card

Click on the link below to create and print the assistance card

http://dementiaassistancecard.com/

Filed under: Dementia, assistance card, Dementia, Elderly

21/09/2015 • 7:27 am 0

‘One in three’ Brits born this year will develop #dementia as experts warn of national health crisis

Experts warned of a “looming national health crisis” as it was revealed today that one in three Brits born this year will develop dementia. Alzheimer’s Research UK said as people live longer, the numbers with dementia will rise.

The latest figures obtained by the charity show that 37% of girls born in 2015 will develop the condition in their lifetime, alongside 27% of boys. The group called for investment in research to find new treatments and preventions in order to beat “our greatest medical challenge”.

Dementia affects 850,000 people in the UK, resulting in the loss of brain cells. The most common type is Alzheimer’s disease.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-09-21/one-in-three-brits-born-this-year-will-develop-dementia-as-experts-warn-of-national-health-crisis/?

Filed under: Dementia, crisis, Dementia

18/09/2015 • 7:06 am 0

Revealed: Shocking NHS postcode lottery for elderly care

An NHS ‘atlas’ reveals the full extent of the postcode lottery in healthcare, with wide variations in the chance of being diagnosed with cancer early, or receiving emergency care which could have been avoided

Elderly people in some parts of the country are nine times more likely than in others to be admitted to hospital as emergency cases – for lack of the right care in their local communities. Charities said the new official figures are a “troubling” insight into a growing crisis in care of the elderly, with hundreds of thousands of pensioners being admitted to hospitals via casualty in cases which could have been avoided with the right help earlier.

The statistics also reveal a three-fold difference in the chance of cancer sufferers being diagnosed early enough to have a good chance of successful treatment, depending where they live. The figures, published by Public Health England, are among more than 100 measures assessed today in an “NHS atlas” exposing enormous variations in NHS care. They also show major disparities in dementia care, the chance of receiving stroke treatment quickly, or receiving treatment at all for a host of common health complaints such as cataracts.

Over 75s living in Canterbury were the most likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency for a stay of less than 24 hours, with 11,000 cases per 100,000 population.

Click on the link to read more and view the NHS Atlas

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/11872521/Revealed-Shocking-NHS-postcode-lottery-for-elderly-care.html

Filed under: Dementia, Elderly, NHS, Elderly, NHS

11/09/2015 • 7:26 am 0

Woman, 47, struck down with early onset dementia keeps asking to see her dead mum

“It’s three weeks since our mum, Barbara, died,” says Gillian, “but even though Sue went to the funeral she keeps forgetting that she is dead”

It breaks Gillian Holland’s heart every time her 47 year old sister Sue asks “Can I see mum now?”. “It’s three weeks since our mum, Barbara, died,” says Gillian, “but even though Sue went to the funeral she keeps forgetting that she is dead.” “I tell her that if I could take her, I would … but then 15 minutes later she asks again.” “It’s like a knife in my heart each time.”

Sue Cole is suffering from a rare early onset dementia which was diagnosed earlier this year, reports Liverpool Echo.

It has devastated her family. But it has inspired Gillian, too, to take part in the Alzheimer’s Society’s biggest annual fundraiser, the Memory Walk, in Liverpool, to raise funds and awareness of this debilitating disease.

“It was a massive shock to us when a brain scan showed Sue had frontotemporal dementia,” explains Gillian, 52, from Bootle. “We had no idea it could effect someone so young.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-47-struck-down-early-6421358?

Fundraiser: Sue Cole, left, with sister Gillian Holland

Filed under: Dementia, early onset dementia

11/09/2015 • 7:18 am 0

MPs set to vote on ‘right to die’ for first time in 20 years

Controversial ‘right to die’ laws are to be debated in parliament today for the first time in almost 20 years. Labour MP Rob Marris will introduce the Assisted Dying Bill after coming top of the Private Members’ Bill ballot following the general election.

The legislation, which passed an initial vote in the House of Lords last year but failed to become law, is a first key question of conscience for the new House of Commons. Mr Marris said his Bill was about offering people “choice and dignity”.

In a blog post ahead of the debate, the Wolverhampton South West MP said: “With appropriate, strong safeguards, terminally ill adults of sound mind should be legally allowed to choose to have assistance to end their own lives.”

“I value life, and I do understand that some people believe very deeply that ending one’s own life is always wrong. Nevertheless, the depth and sincerity of their belief should not mean that they deny choice to those of us who do not share their beliefs”. ROB MARRIS MP

Click on the link to read more

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-09-11/mps-set-to-vote-on-right-to-die-for-first-time-in-20-years/?

Filed under: Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, Hospital, assisted dying bill, Right to die

01/09/2015 • 4:12 pm 0

World Alzheimer’s Month Sept 2015 – Remember Me

September is World Alzheimer’s month http://www.alz.co.uk/world-alzheimers-month

September 2015 will mark the fourth global World Alzheimer’s Month™, an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge stigma.

The theme for World Alzheimer’s Month 2015 is Remember Me. We’re encouraging people all around the world to learn to spot the signs of dementia, but also not to forget about loved ones who are living with dementia, or those who may have passed away. The impact of September’s campaign is growing, but the stigmatisation and misinformation that surrounds dementia remains a global problem.

At the end of August, ADI will launch the annual World Alzheimer Report.

Take a look at our official report of 2014’s campaign here.

Know the facts click here http://www.alz.co.uk/world-alzheimers-month/dementia-facts

Act Now http://www.alz.co.uk/world-alzheimers-month/act-now

Filed under: Dementia

12/08/2015 • 8:25 am 0

Hospitals still not doing enough to safeguard dementia patients: Warning noisy and cluttered wards are causing sufferers to become distressed or suffer harm

Figures published today show the worst hospitals scoring just 42 in 100
They show a huge variation between the worst and best, which scored 98
Some hospitals had even failed to install hand rails to prevent harmful falls
Nurses have warned many A & E units have become ‘places of terror’

Hospitals are failing dementia patients by not doing enough to prevent them becoming distressed or suffering harm, official figures show. Wards are often too noisy, unfamiliar and frightening, or cluttered with bedside tables and chairs which can cause serious falls. Figures published yesterday show that the worst hospital scored only 42 out of 100 in terms of how well it was set up to care for patients with dementia.

Many had failed to install handrails to prevent falls or put up clear signs so patients did not get lost, and some were deemed to be too clinical and unwelcoming. Up to a quarter of patients in hospital have dementia. Many become extremely distressed when in such unfamiliar surroundings. Nurses recently warned that A&E units have become ‘places of terror’ for sufferers.

Hospital managers were urged to make wards more ‘dementia-friendly’ under a strategy launched by David Cameron in 2012. Health bosses were told to take measures to prevent patients falling over or becoming distressed. The Daily Mail has long campaigned for an improvement in the care for patients with dementia as part of our Dignity for the Elderly campaign.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3194470/Hospitals-not-doing-safeguard-dementia-patients-Warning-noisy-cluttered-wards-causing-sufferers-distressed-suffer-harm.html

Filed under: A&E, Dementia, Hospital, NHS, A&E, Dementia, Hospitals, places of terror

22/07/2015 • 8:18 am 0

Dementia drug data set to be revealed

Eagerly awaited data on the most promising drug in treating Alzheimer’s disease is set to be unveiled later today

Patients and scientists hope it could become the first medication to slow the pace of brain decline. The decline in Alzheimer’s is unstoppable – drugs can help with symptoms, but nothing prevents the inexorable death of brain cells.

Hints at the drug’s effectiveness will be outlined, but Solanezumab* has been the great hope of dementia research. It targets deformed proteins called amyloid that build up in the brain during Alzheimer’s. It is thought the formation of sticky plaques of amyloid between nerve cells leads to damage and eventually brain cell death.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33617141

Read about the drug Solanezumab*

http://www.alzforum.org/therapeutics/solanezumab

Filed under: Dementia, Alzheimer's cure, Dementia, Solanezumab

29/06/2015 • 1:46 pm 0

Please show me that you really care

Do you want to make people’s lives better?

Do you want to make your children’s and your parents lives better?

Are you concerned with the amount of medical mistakes in the news?

Are you a thinker or a doer?

Do you really care?

Click on the link and show me that you really care http://goo.gl/3rf9c7

Filed under: A&E, Cancer, Care Homes, Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, GP's, Hospital, Mental Health, Named & Shamed, NHS, NHS Blunders, Self Help, Uncategorized, Whistleblowing, Do you care, making lives better, Medical mistakes

26/06/2015 • 5:04 pm 0

How Will MyNotes Medical work for you? Watch our walk-through slides

We have had a fantastic response regarding MyNotes Medical, but people are still unsure how MyNotes Medical works.

Here is a short slide presentation walkthrough how the programme will work. We NEED your support to help us to help you. Please pledge your support on our link http://goo.gl/3rf9c7 Thank you, Together We Can Make A Difference Joanna

29/04/2015 • 5:55 pm 0

Barbara, the whole story. Created by nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ to raise awareness of dementia among staff

Please take 30 minutes to watch this wonderful video. Very sad and very emotional what can happen to us all, Joanna

Created by nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ to raise awareness of dementia among staff, Barbara’s Story is a series of 6 films which has changed attitudes to dementia in hospitals across the world.

Filed under: Dementia, Dementia

23/04/2015 • 8:46 am 0

Being ignored, neglected and forgotten. A powerful video from Age UK

This video really brings out the message, one day we will all be that much older but still the same person that took our first breath in life. This video should be compulsory for all nurses, doctors, and carers who work caring for the elderly to remember. Joanna

*****

See the contrast between the life Charles has now to the one he has lived. He’s being ignored, neglected and forgotten. Human rights give people the power to challenge poor care, and they apply to all of us, whatever our age.

Please share this film because people need to talk about human rights for older people.

Please click on the link to watch this powerful video

https://www.facebook.com/ageuk/videos/1004159362941871/

Filed under: Care Homes, Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, Elderly, forgotten, ignored, neglected

30/03/2015 • 8:38 am 0

Dementia patients stay in hospital ‘because of home help care shortage’

Patients with dementia are being condemned to needlessly long stays in hospital because of a shortage of care to help them at home, a charity has warned.

New research shows that in the last financial year, people with the condition spent more than 3 million days in hospital – with average stay in some hospitals three times as long as in others. The Alzheimer’s Society said dementia sufferers were being forced to endure long stays in frightening and unfamiliar hospital surroundings, for want of support at home.

Official data shows that the NHS spent nearly £900m on the care of dementia patients who spent 3.42 million days in hospital during 2013/14. If the hospitals with the slowest discharge rates matched the national average, the health service would have saved £70 million – equal to the total amount spent on dementia research each year – the charity said. The figures show that while some hospitals had an average stay of six days for a patient with the condition, in others, the typical stay was more than three weeks.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/11502563/Dementia-patients-stay-in-hospital-because-of-home-help-care-shortage.html

Filed under: Dementia, Elderly, Hospital, NHS, Alzheimers, Dementia, eldery care, Hospital

19/03/2015 • 11:18 am 0

Is it dementia or just normal ageing? New test will help doctors identify if you are at risk of memory problems

A new scoring test to determine who is most at risk of developing memory problems will help doctors spot the signs of dementia, scientists said today.

The new tool is aimed at dementia of the debilitating condition, which currently affects more than 47 million people across the world. By 2030, the World Health Organisation predicts that number will spiral to 75 million. But researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota hope their research will help identify those most at risk, to help doctors intervene with potentially preventative treatments. Study author Ronald Petersen, from the Clinic’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre, said: ‘Our goal is to identify people who are at the highest risk for dementia as early as possible.

‘Early detection of individuals at high risk of developing memory and thinking problems that we call mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is crucial because people with MCI are at a greater risk of developing dementia. ‘This allows for a wider window of opportunity to initiate preventative measures.’

Click on the link to read, and take the memory test

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3001079/Is-dementia-just-normal-ageing-New-test-help-doctors-identify-risk-memory-problems.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

While forgetting what you went upstairs for is and taking a few minutes to recall where you parked your car is no cause for concern, if you can’t remember your grandchild’s name but can recall childhood memories, you should visit your GP, experts say

Filed under: Dementia, Elderly, Self Help, Uncategorized, Dementia, Early detection, memory problems

15/03/2015 • 4:30 pm 0

Dementia Documentry. Please watch Norman McNamara’s account on what its like to live with dementia

Diagnosed with Dementia aged just 50 yrs old, now 56 and still fighting it. Please watch his story and how he is helping others.

Filed under: Dementia, Self Help, Uncategorized, Dementia

13/03/2015 • 8:44 am 0

Alzheimer’s breakthrough: ultrasound successfully treats disease in mice

Scientists believe they may have found a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease – not in the form of a drug but in focused beams of ultrasound. While the approach has only been tested in mice, researchers said on Wednesday it proved surprisingly good at clearing tangles of plaques linked to Alzheimer’s in the animals’ brains and improving their memory, as measured by tests such as navigating a maze. In the past, high-energy ultrasound has been combined with injected microbubbles, which vibrate in response to sound waves, to get drugs across the so-called blood brain barrier. But the new research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, is the first demonstration that ultrasound alone might have a beneficial effect on the memory-robbing condition.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/12/alzheimers-breakthrough-as-ultrasound-successfully-treats-disease-in-mice?CMP=share_btn_fb

Filed under: Dementia, Uncategorized, Alzheimer’s disease, breakthrough

25/02/2015 • 8:39 am 0

It will take more than scientific brilliance to win the battle against dementia

The ageing of societies across the world is a testament to progress. But as we grow older, the risk of mental as well as physical decline increases.Dementia affects one in five people over 80 and its global prevalence is doubling every 20 years. To confront this challenge we need more than scientific brilliance. We need a new approach to the funding and regulation of research. Next month (3-4 March) the World Health Organisation will set out its priorities for research into the degenerative brain disease at the first ministerial conference on global action against dementia in Geneva.

It follows David Cameron’s announcement in the Autumn Statement last December of a £15m down-payment by the UK government to help fund the battle against what the prime minister described as “one of the greatest enemies of humanity”.

Click on the link to read more

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25/scientific-brilliance-battle-dementia-ara-darzi?

Filed under: Care Homes, Dementia, Elderly, Mental Health, NHS, Dementia

21/02/2015 • 11:40 am 0

Press release: PM launches next phase of Britain’s fight against dementia

David Cameron sets out a new, long-term strategy focused on boosting research, improving care and raising public awareness about dementia.

Click on the link to read

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-launches-next-phase-of-britains-fight-against-dementia

Watch the BBC video report on

Alzheimer’s charity hails one million ‘dementia friends’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31565160

Filed under: Dementia, Elderly, Mental Health, Dementia

Blog views to date

The Last Six Months Email Subscription

Helpful Pages, Templates etc

Recent Posts

Pages

Menu

A - Z of Helpful Links

Blogs/websites

Campaigns

Cancer

Charities / Patients Help

Complaints/ Legal Help

Disabilities

Elderly Care

End of Life Care and Bereavement

IBS / Faecal Incontinence

Lifestyle/Self Help

Whistle-Blowers