There is something that touches your soul when you hear the individual stories of how people care for those they love the most. Families often make such huge sacrifices in these circumstances, completely altering the plans and lives they once…
Author: Beth Britton
I'm an award-winning content creator, consultant, campaigner and speaker, trainer and mentor, specialising in ageing, health & social care. Until 2012 I was a carer to my dad who had vascular dementia for approximately the last 19 years of his life. I aim to provide support and advice to those faced with similar situations, inform and educate care professionals and the wider population, promote debate and create improvements in dementia care.
The carer’s job description
If you had to be isolated, unsupported and fight the system, would you apply to be an unpaid carer? This is not a position that fills you with hope for the future, gives you room for personal development, or brings…
How do you make good dementia policy?
Having spent 19-years graduating in dementia, I can honestly say that I think I know dementia pretty well. Its highs and lows, the surprises and quirks, the sadness and pain, and the endless battles you fight for the care your…
End-of-life care: A very personal story
Planting up my father’s grave recently, I found my mind wandering back to our last few days with him, painful in so many ways and yet hugely comforting as well. Nothing is more important to me than knowing that we…
Loving our elders and betters
In the UK we are wonderfully good at valuing children and animals. Yes, there are isolated cases of cruelty and abandonment, but the vast majority show huge compassion towards the young, putting children at the centre of so much in…
Decisions, decisions
Moving a loved one into a care home is one of the most difficult, emotional and life-changing things you will ever do. It is even more challenging when the person you are moving into a care home has dementia, and…
Food for thought
One of the things many of us take for granted in our busy lives is the enjoyment of food. It is vital to fuel our bodies for the physical and mental exertions they face, and it is one of life’s great…
Can the UK rise to the challenge?
Whether you are living with dementia, caring for someone with it, have encountered dementia at some point in your life through friends or family, work within the health and social care sectors, or are someone whose life has never been…
Every face tells a story
Behind every illness, every disease and every condition there is a real person, yet when it comes to dementia it is not the person living with it that needs reminding of this, it is the society they live in. Sadly…
How do you do it?
The question I have probably been asked more than any other over the last few years is how do you cope with having a loved one with dementia? There is no easy or short answer to that, but overwhelming I…
Singing from the same hymn sheet
Improving the quality of life for people with dementia, especially in the more advanced stages of the disease when they may have very limited communication or ability to do anything for themselves, is one of my biggest passions. Over the…
Don’t wait for a ‘crisis point’
I heard a pretty shocking statistic at yesterday’s Alzheimer’s Society conference. Two thirds of people living with dementia NEVER get an official diagnosis; if that same statistic applied to the diagnosis of cancer, and as a result two thirds of…
Dementia – You can’t catch it!
Stigma is one of the biggest problems currently facing those battling against dementia. Fear of the big D easily rivals fear of the big C, but whilst cancer campaigners have made massive strides in helping society face up to that…
