Take the time to learn about dementia

The KM newsroom is proud to say it can now be called an office of dementia friends. The training, provided by the Alzheimer’s Society, challenged all our preconceived ideas of what living with the condition means and how best to act towards someone who has it.

One of the most thoughtprovoking exercises saw staff members given a card with a description on, and asked a series of questions about how able their character would be, given their circumstances, from making a cup of tea to doing the ironing.

It turned out we all had the same scenario, we were a 73-year-old man living with dementia, but had very different opinions on our capabilities.

The truth is, without more information, we simply don’t know how the condition would affect someone. And it’s important not to put unnecessary limits on their independence.

For instance, if a person living with dementia keeps putting the electric kettle on the hob to boil the water, the solution could be to provide them with an old fashioned kettle rather than stopping them from making tea altogether.

Of course those of us who don’t already know someone living with dementia hope we’ll never need the training. But the reality is we probably all will at some point. And even if it’s not someone we know, just having that understanding next time we’re stuck behind someone living with dementia in the supermarket queue means the training was worth every second.