With COVID-19, recent months have been challenging for us all. For people with dementia, they have been especially so. Many have been cocooning or staying at home to minimise the risk of contracting COVID-19. To protect people with dementia from COVID-19, some services had to change, and many have been missing important social connections and activities that are so crucial for wellbeing.
The international theme for World Alzheimer Month (September) is “Let’s talk about dementia” and this is especially poignant as stigma and misunderstandings of dementia are still prevalent in Ireland. Now, more than ever, it is vital to change the current culture around dementia and help create an Ireland that supports and includes people living with dementia.
Changing a culture takes time, but it is often the little things that make the biggest difference in a person’s life, such as:
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see the person, not the dementia
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talk about dementia
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ask how you can help
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stay in touch
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support the person to keep up hobbies and interests
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make sure your space or service is easy to use.
Over 40 national organisations and 340 Community Champions have joined the Dementia: Understand Together campaign, and are doing just that. One example is Irish Rail which organised various dementia awareness initiatives, including training for staff and workshops with people with dementia to explore their travel experience and how that can be enhanced.
Kevin Quaid (pictured, on the far left of the group photo), Vice Chairperson of the Irish Dementia Working Group (IDWG) and living with Lewybody dementia, says “knowing staff have received training in dementia and seeing staff members wearing the Dementia: Understand Together badge makes me feel safe and enables me to travel alone. A little understanding can go a long way.”
Understanding dementia and looking at how to make services and activities accessible to people with dementia is vital to creating inclusive communities. Awareness training can be a first step. Local community champions work hand in hand with organisations, councils and local businesses to raise awareness of dementia, hold information talks, create inclusive services and inspire choirs, sports and other community groups to embrace people with dementia.
Find out more at http://www.understandtogether.ie/get-involved/
