Introducing myself

[mattyoj89]

Hello all

For the past ten years I have worked at various dementia day centres in the south East. Up until 2017, my experience of dementia was purely from supporting clients and their carers in the day centre environment. In January 2017 a family member was diagnosed with dementia. This has given me a whole new experience of such a devastating illness. My reason for joining this forum is to try and support people by sharing some of my experience and at the same time also gaining support from other people by hearing some of their own experiences.

 

[LadyA]

Welcome, @mattyoj89 . I think caring for one of our own loved ones brings a whole different set of emotions, than caring professionally. Often too, we find a person with dementia will behave much better for "professionals" than for the family carer who's there 24/7. And, of course, for a lot of family carers, there's no going home at the end of an eight hour shift and getting a good night's sleep!

On the other hand, your experience will mean you probably have lots of ideas for activities, and experience of communicating with people with dementia, which is invaluable.

Do browse around the forum and join in any discussions you wish, or start a thread of your own.