'Telling Tales about Dementia' - Public Reading

roger1941

Registered User
Jan 9, 2008
43
0
East Kent
www.alzheimers.org.uk
Media Release
Further information: 0777 301 3193; 020 8809 2407
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Telling Tales about Dementia: Experiences of Caring
Edited by Lucy Whitman Foreword by Joanna Trollope
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers £14.99 ISBN: 978 1 84310 941 9


Special event for LGBT History Month
Reading at Age Concern Camden
Great Croft Resource Centre
Cromer Street
Kings Cross WC1H 8LF

On Saturday 6 February 2.30 – 4.30pm
Further information on 020 7121 3335

On Saturday 6 February at 2.30pm, as part of Camden LGBT History Month,
there will be a reading by lesbian and gay contributors to a new book, Telling Tales About Dementia, which is edited by Lucy Whitman. In this unique anthology, thirty carers from a variety of backgrounds describe their experiences of looking after a partner, parent or friend with dementia.

The collection is particularly significant because, perhaps for the first time in a book of this kind, the experiences of lesbians and gay men who have been caring for someone with dementia are vividly illustrated by half a dozen different contributions – a testimony to the dictum ‘gay or straight, dementia does not discriminate’.

At this event, some of the lesbians and gay men who have contributed to the book will read extracts from their chapters, followed by a discussion about the issues which are faced by LGBT people affected by dementia. Contributors taking part include:

 Rachael Dixey, who is caring for her partner Irene who has early onset dementia
 Brian Baylis, who cared for his friend Timothy, and who encountered both hostility from Timothy’s family, and a complete lack of awareness from service providers about the needs of LGBT people with dementia
 Maria Jastrzębska, whose poetry is well-known in both lesbian and poetry circles, both of whose parents had dementia
 Roger Newman MBE, who cared for his partner David, and co-founded the Alzheimer’s Society LGBT Carers Group
 Lucy Whitman, who edited the collection, whose mother had dementia. Lucy is a writer and activist, formerly a prolific contributor to magazines such as Spare Rib, Lesbian London etc.

The event will be chaired by Sally Knocker, Director of Communications at the National Association for Providers of Activities for Older People (NAPA).
 

roger1941

Registered User
Jan 9, 2008
43
0
East Kent
www.alzheimers.org.uk
The public reading of 'Telling Tales about Dementia'

Thanks to all of you who read the notice about the LGBT public reading of 'Telling Tales about Dementia'. We had an audience of 28 people and it was a very moving experience too. Certainly it was a useful awareness raising occasion for some attending but we need more such events to get the message over that 'gay or straight, dementia does not discriminate'.
The book is selling well and has received praise from a lot of quarters. It is being used as a text book in universities both here and abroad and is almost unique in its diverse and inclusive outlook.
Recommend you read it, little by little!