Tag Archives: dementia

Norwich music teacher’s toolkit for fighting dementia

January 12, 2015   Carers, dementia, Featured Article, Norfolk

Music teacher with a passion for helping people with dementia

Pat Phelan (left) with her daughter Lesley Evans. Picture: Matthew Usher.

Monday, January 12, 2015
6:30 AM

A music teacher with a passion for helping people with dementia has come up with a musical toolkit to help families, friends and healthcare professionals communicate more effectively with those affected by the disease.

Using autobiographical collections of the music and sounds which have coloured their lives, volunteers help people who have been newly-diagnosed with dementia to create a Music Mirror which can be used to engage them as the disease progresses.

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Tommy on tour to spread the word about dementia

December 17, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Featured Article, Norfolk, Suffolk

Tommy Whitelaw (front) with staff from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after his talk about dealing with dementia, which was part of his Tommy on Tour programme. At the front with Tommy is Lead Nurse for older people Alison Webb. Picture: Matthew Usher.

Former U2 and Kylie global merchandising operator embarks on a special tour to spread the word about dementia

Tuesday, December 16, 2014
1:58 PM

For years, he toured the globe with some of the biggest names in pop. Now he tours hospitals, spreading awareness about dementia.

Tommy Whitelaw ran the global merchandising operations for U2, the Spice Girls and Kylie until 2007, when his mum, Joan, was diagnosed with vascular dementia.

He was her carer for five years, until she died in September, 2012. Now Mr Whitelaw, from Glasgow, works on the Dementia Carers Voices project with the Health and Social Care Alliance.

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Dementia care in Japan is being solved through volunteer schemes

November 18, 2014   Carers, dementia, Featured Article

Community projects, such as open houses which provide all-day care, are innovative and low-cost
Mayumi Hayashi, King’s College London

Guardian Professional,

4.6 million people in Japan are living with dementia. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

With the world’s fastest ageing population where one in four are over 65 and there are 4.6m people (15% of the older population) living with dementia, Japan is struggling to find sustainable and affordable solutions. With the world’s highest level of debt – 230% of national GDP – these solutions to the challenge of dementia must be both innovative and cost-effective.

While political leaders take the stage in Tokyo to promote their “big” dementia policies, at ground level grassroots initiatives are helping to make communities dementia friendly. Central government is beginning to take notice, appreciate and even promote these volunteer-led examples of dementia care and support. This positive response reflects the overriding economic pressures and concerns – to defuse the “ticking time-bomb” of dementia.

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