Over 80 health care professionals, volunteers and family carers recently gathered at a panel event that discussed the future of dementia care on the Island and sought to raise awareness of the devastating disease.
Hosted by Lady Grylls and Joe Robertson, the event at Bembridge brought together a panel and audience of local and national experts including panellist Dr Hilda Hayo, Chief Executive of the charity Dementia UK. Completing the panel were Darren Cattell, Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Councillor John Nicholson, Chair of the Council’s Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee.
In what was a well-attended and thought-provoking session, the panel answered a range of pre-submitted and spontaneous questions about local dementia provision on the Isle of Wight.
The panel acknowledged there was sometimes a gap in the provision between health and social care services and they referred to the positive role played by community Admiral Nurses working to help bridge the gap. A recurring theme was how to effectively communicate with someone with dementia, particularly during periods when the person believes that a loved one from the past is still alive.
Dr Hayo, who is also Chief Admiral Nurse at Dementia UK, responded by advising caution to not cause distress by reminding someone unnecessarily that a loved one had died. She explained that by talking about the person who is no longer alive the memories will give comfort to the person with dementia and the immediate urge to see that person will often subside. Her key advice was to, “treat everyone as an individual and bring them into a conversation”.
Joe Robertson, who works as a national adviser to Dementia UK and chaired the panel session, said after the event:
“We were fortunate to have such a wealth of knowledge and very personal experience in the room, some of which was shared. I agree this awful disease has not yet received the level of attention and exposure that is needed. That is one of the key reasons I organised this event with Sally Grylls.”
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Darren Cattell spoke about service provision on the Island and bought colleagues from the NHS Trust with him. He said:
“The biggest benefit of events like this is to hear from the people with lived experience of dementia and their unpaid carers, and to have the opportunity to understand what is working well and what we need to do better.
“There is a lot of support on the Island for health, social care and our volunteer partners but it was obvious that people wanted to be able to do more themselves to help others in their community, be it through raising money for dementia research and care or giving of their own time to befriend and support individuals. We look forward to being a part of our next steps together.”
Bembridge resident Don Webber is preparing to walk the Camino de Santiago in aid of Dementia UK. Donations can be made via his JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/don-webber2.
More needs to be done – I lost my mum to dementia five years ago it’s a cruel and relentless disease https://youtu.be/C1uXCw1NmcE
Dementia is the worst way a human is allowed to die ,we watched our lovely mother just lose everything infront of us ,and the hospitals doctors and the council do nothing ,the care workers in the homes do the real work , every single person who works for adult social care on the island from the pen pushers who could even spell my mothers name to faceless nothings who do nothing ,I hate dementia
The carers in the home mum has been in are fantastic, they understand dementia and how to make the sufferers life the best it can be.
Having to deal with the countless beaurecrats in gaining that care is an appalling experience, it seems they are only there to make matters worse and take any assets the patient may have, utter disgusting vultures.
Admiral nurses have given much support and encouragement.
The system needs to change, stop trying to rob people in their hour of need and actually offer help and support to the patient and their family, and speed up the process, time is very precious!
Life is hard enough and getting harder without this awful word being part of it .
Totally agree it’s a cruel disease