I wouldn't have missed this journey of learning about, and with my Mum. BUT it was without a doubt the most stressful and isolating period of my life, with her friends, local community and society in general totally unprepared and unable to encourage or support us.
So when I got to meet one of my dementia care hero's last week, Andy Tysoe (at the FabChangeDay hubbie event ), I was thrilled to hear more about his work which began with a Change Day pledge and has become a major dementia awareness campaign called #DementiaDo
The #DementiaDO campaign is about involving the whole community in making life better for people with dementia. That’s NHS staff, social care workers, ordinary members of the public especially if they’re not yet directly involved with someone affected by dementia. You can read more about #DementiaDo here http://changeday.nhs.uk/campaigns/dementiado/
One aspect of his work, which really resonated with me, was the dementia friendly supermarket checkout.
What a fabulous idea, if this had been available locally it would have enabled my Mum to shop independently for longer (as the anxiety of not being able to pay prevented her from shopping alone) .
So take a few minutes to watch the film, isn't this exactly the kind of society and community that we want to live in? http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2015-10-20/uks-first-dementia-friendly-checkout-opens-in-chester/
If, like me, this has inspired you, you will have the opportunity to learn more and participate in #FabChangeDay 2016 on October 19th.
In the meantime you can follow Andy on twitter @dementiaboy and contact him directly by email [email protected]