Tag Archives: dementia
The pain and pride of becoming a parent to my father
The pain and pride of becoming a parent to my father: As dementia claims a beloved dad, a daughter’s moving story
By Rebecca Ley
PUBLISHED: 21:02, 4 April 2012 | UPDATED: 21:02, 4 April 2012
Guardian angel: Rebecca as a baby with her father
Last week, a shopping receipt made me cry. The ink was faded, but I could make out the groceries my father used to buy for himself. German biscuits. Ham. Cherry tomatoes. The particular kind of apricot juice I always thought was too sweet.
It’s a banal list, but one that made me catch my breath. For my father Peter, 76, can’t do ordinary things such as going to the supermarket any more. This unexpected reminder of the man he used to be, the decisions he used to make, drove that home.
He has vascular dementia — Alzheimer’s less famous twin. A series of tiny strokes, cloudbursts in his brain, are destroying him. Every week, he gets a little worse. Once a proud Cornishman who strode the cliffs and built granite walls with ease, he now shuffles, and trembles as he eats.
The reason I came across the receipt, tucked into the middle of an old chequebook, is because I look after his finances. Before he became ill, when he and my mother divorced, it was decided that I, the eldest daughter from his second marriage, should have power of attorney if the worst should happen.
Now it has and, as I live more than 300 miles away, managing his affairs has become my way of loving this new version of him. But this ‘dadmin’, as I call it, is difficult; though not as hard as showering and dressing him, or weathering his thunderous moods, I hasten to add. That role falls to his fantastic carers, who have made a difficult situation bearable.
Yet it’s extremely hard all the same. A constant worry hums along in the background of my life, sometimes swelling to absorb whole days. I have gone from having a single bank account and a joint mortgage to managing four properties and nine tenants (Dad used his hard-earned savings to join the buy-to-let boom), employing three people and juggling various ISAs and investments.
Doctors ‘too slow’ diagnosing dementia
Doctors in parts of the country are not diagnosing dementia early enough and must be better trained in order to improve treatment, the head of Britain’s largest biomedical research charity has said.
By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent
7:09AM BST 02 Apr 2012
Sir Mark Walport said the “unacceptable” variation in diagnosis rates in different regions was one of the first problems that the government must tackle in its new drive to improve dementia care.
Doctors’ effectiveness at spotting dementia varies dramatically across the country, with just 37 per cent of sufferers in the south west receiving a diagnosis compared with 46 per cent in the north east and almost 70 per cent in parts of Northern Ireland, according to Alzheimer’s Society figures based on NHS data.
Website launched to assist carers
A WEBSITE which will transform the way patients, carers and professionals access information was launched in Swindon this week
9:32am Friday 30th March 2012 in News
The website, which has received support from Prime Minister David Cameron, focuses initially on dementia and stroke services and has been pioneered by the NHS across the south west, along with social care partners, voluntary groups and with key input from patients and carers.
The website, called Our Health, was highlighted with the launch of the PM’s Challenge on Dementia. It is the first of its kind in England and will eventually be rolled out across the whole country.
