8 essential tips for carers
Dementia Help founder and former carer Christina Neal has these top tips for carers on how to cope with caring for a loved one… Get to know dementia Get to know dementia. Understand how the disease affects your loved one. The more you know the better placed you will...
Do you have unresolved issues with your loved one?
If you’re caring for a loved one with dementia, you may resent the role if you have anger or frustration towards the person because of their past behaviour. Christina Neal felt the same about her mum and confronted her issues… I’m going to ask you a controversial...
Make a difference on World Alzheimer’s Month
It’s World Alzheimer’s Month – do your bit with these five ideas to fundraise and raise awareness. September is World Alzheimer’s Month, a campaign organised by Alzheimer’s Disease International to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that surrounds...
Dementia Help Cycle Challenge
Congratulations to Peter Berry and Jan Dodd who cycled from Wales to Suffolk in June (covering over 330 miles) to raise vital funds for YoungDementia UK. There are over 42,000 young people (under the age of 65) diagnosed with a form of dementia in the UK, and many...
Keep visiting a person with dementia
If you have a loved one who has dementia living in a care home and they don’t remember your visits, you may wonder if there’s any point at all in going to see them, especially if you find visiting them distressing. After all, if they don’t remember you being there and...
Communicating with a loved one with dementia
When caring for a person with dementia, you may have noticed that conversations can become a struggle as the condition progresses. While it can be a challenge, it’s important not to lose your patience as this will make things more strained between you. Even if you’re...
Things I wish I’d known about dementia
When my mother was first diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2009, I knew very little about dementia. I didn’t realise how much it would influence her behaviour. As the saying goes, if I knew then what I know now, says Christina Neal… Moods can change very quickly...
Find your support crew
Caring for my mum on my own was too much for me sometimes. My emotions were all over the place. On a bad day, I’d feel like running away and giving up. On a good day, I felt relieved that things were better but fearful of what the next day would bring. I had a...