Thursday 8 November 2012

Time to Raise Awareness of Dementia Again


Time to Raise Awareness of Dementia Again

Dementia is something that is difficult to understand and many General Practitioners don't really understand it, let alone know how to diagnose it, and therefore we need to have more training in the dementia awareness campaign, but not just training for doctors, but all medical staff, along with all those in the public services, police fire brigade and ambulance services, so they can understand that when someone gets agitated in a strange like a hospital or an ambulance, it could be an illness like dementia and not something like drink or drugs.

 

Dementia covers a vast array of types of the illness, and as I was told by a consultant once there are well over 120 variations of dementia, and no two people go down the same route with the same symptoms, something which is difficult to grasp.

How can that work, surely we need trained professionals trained within the NHS not in industry as we see these days.

 

We also need all care home staff to be given formal training, before they are given a job in a care home and I do think this is something that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence should push for and make it mandatory, so there is no excuse for abuse or mistreatment.

 

Many of us also do talks to trainee Nurses, Doctors and Social Workers at Universities and this work must carry on if we are to succeed in getting this illness more recognition, and also get standards raised, so they all understand what our lives are live on a daily basis.

 

People with dementia can have an important role in all of this, by going out and being allowed to speak to staff in hospitals and care homes,

 

It’s not the first time we have spoken at an event.

Training has to get off the ground so that every only to be told afterwards that the students had learnt more from us than they did in a lecture. If that is the case, “where are the text books coming from”, and are they up to date.

 

We should ensure that each person in a hospital or care home is treated with the same dignity and respect that we would all expect from other people and nothing short of that will do.

 

Anyone who does not understand that must be in the wrong job and should get out before they are thrown out.

 

I am not alone with this, as many are not given the dignity and respect they deserve.

 

In fact it’s time that this was drilled into all staff including care home staff.

TREAT US WITH THE SAME DIGNITY AND RESPECT THAT YOU WOULD EXPECT FROM OTHERS.

When we get this message through we may start to get somewhere, as we hear far too many cases of people with this illness being abused in care homes and hospitals these days, something which in my view is a backward step not a forward one as we would all expect in this century

 

I know that money is short in the health service, but to me it’s spent on the wrong things by the wrong people, time and time again.

 

I do think it’s time to change the standards and bring back hospital Matrons, as they know what’s needed and are more in control than some pen pusher, who was brought in to run the hospital, but has never done a day’s work inside a proper hospital.

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

I always say that we may have this illness, but we are all so different.

This is my own daily problems, but I would gladly share anyone elses, if they send them in,

End of the blog

After giving it a lot of thought over the last few months, I have decided to finally stop writing this blog now This is for a few reasons, b...