Memory clinics

[Kate P]

Can I ask what these memory clinics are?

Are they just for AZ?

Mum has FTD and struggles to speak so I don't know whether it would help her anyway.

I just feel like we have a diagnosis but no one is saying anything else - it's like they don't know what to do with us.

 

[Grannie G]

Dear Kate,

Ask the consultant whether or not one would be suitable for your mother.

I think you know by now that Dhiren attends one. I don`t think it`s helping his memory at all, but it is getting him out of the house, has enabled him to mix with others and be with a group without being with me.

The memory clinic he attends gives coping strategies and tries to encourage social interaction, but not everyone speaks or takes an active part. I just hope some subliminal information gets through to Dhiren, and it does give him somewhere constructive to go.

He thinks it does him good.

Love xx

 

[BeckyJan]

Our 'memory clinic' is not a true clinic at all - the CPN/Assessor comes out to the house just to do the memory test and in our case I fill in a questionnaire outlining how things have been over the previous month (not six months!!).

Our local consultant feels that outpatient type clinics are not suitable - I think maybe this is because we are in a wide rural area. Whilst in principle it seems good thinking, it does mean 'we' are not checked out as regularly as we should be and we could miss out on thesocial side . (See my other thread about frequency of assessments). However for social needs we use the Alz. cafes around us as well as organising our own.

This may be confusing but you will find that each 'district' has their own system.

Best wishes Jan

 

[KenC]

Hi Kate P,

Memory clinics are for all with Memory problems, as well as Alzheimers and Dementia. Its just a way of assessing the patients progress by the Memory Nurse and the Consultant.

I am checked every six months by the Doctor at the hospital and in between the Nurse comes round to our house at six monthly intervals and does the same.

Although with patients who have Dementia with Lewy bodies, the results do not change very much until the later stages.

Best Wishes

Ken