I have a passion for sharing stories of humanity and real life experiences. We can learn so much and gain support from hearing from people who know what it feels like to live something first hand.
My first ever job, over 25 years ago was in a care home and I had no training on dementia and how to communicate with people living with dementia. I was only 16 and I had to figure out the most empathetic way of repeatedly telling someone their husband had just died. Someone else even wrote a note saying ‘your husband has died’ and she read it but didn’t believe it each time. As I hugged her and explained it every 10 minutes I knew I had so much to learn.
I have seen many people asking questions that don’t make sense to people with dementia because it requires memories they just can’t find. I want to use my skills in creating support materials to help us all learn from real life experiences to better understand and communicate with people with dementia.
I will create a series of videos and digital material to support people caring for people with dementia.