Sunday 30 March 2014

South Tees Dementia Champions Celebration

 I was invited to speak at the Dementia Champions event at the James Cooke Hospital in Middlesbrough on South Tees on Friday, and was truly amazed at how much they have done to become truly dementia friendly.



There were a lot of brilliant speakers, from all parts of the Country, and many of the trainers and specialists in the hospital, all who seem to have a very keen interest in changing and raising the standards of care received by people with dementia when they enter this hospital.



I was invited to go to talk about why I thought it was important for me to do my blog on living with Lewy Body Dementia, and what it achieves when you have any form of dementia or Neurological illness.



There were many other speakers who did a wonderful job, helping change conditions for people who have dementia when they need hospital treatment etc



During the day we saw the presentation of certificates to staff members, who have completed City and Guilds course on Dementia care, and it was truly amazing to hear their stories



What is more they admitted that through mistakes, they had learnt so much from the course and hearing that made me realise that, yes we all make mistakes, but it takes a very special person to admit it openly, and then move on to make things better for others.  These people really had learnt from their mistakes which are very easy to make when you are learning about this difficult illness
  
Well done ladies



Another speaker was Tommy Whitelaw who cared for his Mum


This was a hard story to listen to, but Tommy has done so much to raise awareness, not just in Scotland but all round the UK



I found it very hard listening to his story, of his and his MUM Joans problems, and confess that I was in tears, but I was not alone in this.



His story highlighted many of the problems we find these days when trying to get help, but it was put over in such a way that it was vastly different to the many carers stories I have heard in the past.

This was a very emotional and passionate story which hit hard, and I did not see anyone from where I was sat near the back of the lecture theatre who did not have tears in their eyes.



If anyone can raise awareness of this illness dementia he can do it. He is a true ambassador to this illness and all carers



Where we were doing presentations, there was also a twitter board near to the side of the lectern, and it was interesting seeing all of the interest from around the UK. It was also hard to watch what you were doing because it was compulsory to watch twitter so you could see what they were saying.


I confess I could not do this because I would have totally lost my place



But it was like a moving wall of fame



Thank you and very well done, to all of the organisors at the James Cook Hospital for a marvelous and inspiring day



It was also nice to meet up with frinds whom I had met on Facebook and Twitter, but never in person until this event.


Kim Pennock Tommy Whitelaw






 Thank you so much I really enjoyed myself and felt relaxed in a Hospital for the first time

2 comments:

  1. You are so lucky to have such great supporters in your area! Well done! I look forward to reading your posts. I am so proud of what your are doing in raising awareness. Ana from Senior Helpers in Orlando.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you were amazing! and I now look forward to reading your blog on a regular basis. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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,

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