Category Archives: dementia

I’m losing my husband to a mistress called Alzheimers

October 27, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Laurie Graham’s husband no longer remembers their wedding, his address or even ever being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease

By Laurie Graham

PUBLISHED: 02:01, 27 October 2012 | UPDATED: 02:01, 27 October 2012

My husband is leaving me. No dramas, no slammed doors — well, OK, a few slammed doors — and no suitcase in the hall, but there is another woman involved. Her name is Dementia.

Let me tell you about my husband. He’s 66 years old. At first glance you’d say he looks very well. A little rumpled perhaps, and a bit slow-moving but when he troubles to wear his preferred silk bow tie and his felt fedora he still cuts a figure.

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£50m set aside for dementia patients

October 25, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt makes fund available to create calming environments in treatment of dementia

 

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has made £50m available to create calming environments for people with dementia.

A new fund of £50m to create calming environments for people with dementia, which aid treatment by helping sufferers to avoid confusion, will be announced on Thursday by the health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The money will be available to NHS trusts and local authorities working in partnership with social care providers to help tailor hospitals and care homes to the needs of those with dementia.

Hunt’s aides claim that the announcement puts the care of sufferers at the heart of his priorities in a week when abusive workers from Winterbourne View care home are sentenced for assaulting elderly and frail patients.

But critics point out that the money will make an insignificant impact upon the key problem within the sector. It does not address long term funding for thousands of sufferers who need constant care but are increasingly left to fend for themselves in the private sector.

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Dilemma of Northern Ireland dementia victims

October 25, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, stigma

25 October 2012 Last updated at 06:18

Many people with dementia in Northern Ireland are not dying where they would prefer, with their families unaware of their end-of-life wishes.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, many families are unaware of their loved ones wishes because of a double stigma around dementia and death.

The charity is calling for a greater awareness about planning end of life care.

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