How should you communicate with a person who has dementia? A diagnosis of dementia is almost always a life changing shock – not just for the person who has been diagnosed but for family, friends and colleagues. There are many different forms of dementia – the best known being Alzheimer’s disease – and there is a surprising amount of variation in the way people experience the disease and the way symptoms can progress.
It’s not all doom and gloom from the day of diagnosis, as people like former nurse, Kate Swaffer, continues to demonstrate. Six years ago, at the age of 49, Kate was diagnosed with a rare form of fronto-temporal ‘younger onset’ dementia and was advised to stop working and get her affairs in order.
After initially crying for six weeks straight, Kate decided to tackle the diagnosis head on, signing up to do more study, starting a blog and becoming an outspoken activist for community understanding and acceptance of the disease.
As someone who lives with dementia, she is able to provide important insights into the perceptions and feelings of someone with dementia and importantly, how best to engage and communicate with them.
Read more here.
Read more here.
