Tuesday 16 December 2014

People with dementia attending meetings and conferences

Many people with dementia attend, meetings and conferences, where this illness is the main topic, whether to listen or to take an active part in it.

Yet in many cases they are not treated with the respect they really deserve

It takes a lot of time to set up a presentation when your living with or caring for a person with the illness, yet many Organisers make them wait until the end of the conference to speak

These people know what its like to live with the illness or care for someone living with it, so they should be given prime spots, rather than making the wait

This is because its gets very tiring sitting listening to others, while trying to think about your presentation, wondering if you missed anything out, or have written something totally wrong.

Many of these people have a knack of setting the right tone, and should therefore be used better.

I know from my own experience that afternoons are or can be hazardous as I get tired after lunch if I don't get a good break, although everyone is so very different, so I tend to speak in the morning, while I am feeling fresh.

If a conference is talking about dementia, they should lead with the person living with it, and then when it comes to the caring side start with the carer.

Leaving them to the end of a meeting means that many people will have left.

Leaving them till lunch time, means that many people will be thinking of their lunch break and not the speakers, as I found on many occasions

Its so sad when people with the illness and their carers have to finish a conference or meeting, because they either get more and for fired up, or we find that in most cases people have left early for home, and that is something which can be annoying to the speakers.

I was told recently that some people enjoy being the speakers at the end of the event, but were surprised at how many people had already left for home before they got on the stage.


 So perhaps organisers should consider this in future

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

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