Category Archives: dementia

West Suffolk: Husband’s love helps keep Dorothy’s dementia at bay

March 19, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Parkinsons

Brian Atkinson and his wife Dorothy are backing our Forget Me Not campaign

Emma Brennan West Suffolk chief reporter
emma.brennan@archant.co.uk
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
10:00 AM

Brian Atkinson and his wife Dorothy are backing our Forget Me Not campaign 

During the past six years of their long and happy marriage, that promise has certainly been put to the test after Mrs Atkinson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008.

Two years later, the condition developed into Lewy bodies (DLB), a type of dementia that shares symptoms with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Since then her memory has been deteriorating progressively.

Mr Atkinson, 86, who is supporting our Forget-Me-Not campaign for West Suffolk Hospital, said: “Dorothy can remember family history and things like that, but not what happened two hours ago.

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Memory Café for dementia sufferers and carers in Queensferry

March 17, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, mental health, Scotland

The Memory Café

 

Queensferry Care has officially opened a new service “The Memory Café”, at The Haven 25b Burgess Road, its base in South Queensferry. Developed through a partnership with NHS Lothian, Alzheimer’s Scotland and Queensferry Care, the Café will open from 13:00hr to 15:00hr on the third Thursday of each month and will provide support, information and advice to people who have a diagnosis of dementia and to carers.

Sharon Hampson-Bahia, manager at Queensferry Care said: “We were delighted with the response at the opening of the café and it was clear that people attending valued the opportunity to meet and chat with the professional team in a relaxed setting while enjoying a coffee and some delicious cakes.

“Queensferry Care have been providing a range of services to older people and carers for over twenty years across rural west Edinburgh and it is has been exciting for us to be able to extend our work in partnership with Alzheimer’s Scotland and NHS Lothian in such an innovative way.”

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RCGP to help GPs support carers

March 5, 2014   Cancer, Carers, dementia, mental health

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has been awarded more than £380,000 from the Department of Health to develop a unique online information ‘hub’ to help GPs improve the support and services they provide for carers.

Ingrid Torjesen

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

The hub will collate all the information GPs, primary healthcare staff, practice teams, commissioners and Health & Wellbeing Board representatives might need to identify and support carers, bringing together RCGP resources from the RCGP Supporting Carers in General Practice programme, as well as signposting to external resources.

The hub will have information about the needs of carers, right from the initial diagnosis of the person they are caring for through to resolution of the condition or end of life, with a focus on depression. It will also offer guidance about what questions to ask carers, what rights they have and what support is available. The aim is to link a range of supplementary resources on disease specific conditions including dementia, end of life care, cancer and mental health.

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