For Dementia Awareness Week
This week (from 17th – 23 May) in the UK it is Dementia Awareness Week.
Some of you will know that I worked for Alzheimer’s society until I retired a couple of years ago.
I would like to acknowledge the work of the society and to contribute to Dementia Awareness Week by posting ‘something different for me’: a short sketch each day called
“All in a days work”
These are not remembered stories but real events I wrote up a long time ago right after the visit/phone call.
As support workers we had excellent support in the office but on the rare occasion I couldn’t get there after I finished a visit or I was alone in the office I used to write down my thoughts and feelings and let the paper listen.
Wanted: Patience, a calm, soft voice and very carefully chosen words.
Apply deep within.
It was a large room with the furniture set on two sides of a square. The settee was at right angles to the two chairs that were separated by the door to the hall and the rest of the house.
I was shown in and offered a seat on the settee. My lady wondered if she should sit by me. “Oh yes please” I said, “Then I will be able to hear you.”
Her husband sat in the armchair furthest from us.
The door bell went, my lady got up to greet her daughter who promptly sat beside me remarking that the seat was warm “were you sitting here mum?” not moving or listening for an answer. The husband began to talk about what he wanted. Not seeming to look at this wife, speak to her, or even acknowledge she was in the room.
The doorbell went again it was my lady’s son.
He came in and pulled up a dining room chair and sat between his mother and his sister.
The husband, son and daughter all began to speak at once; I asked if I might have a glass of water, it was going to be a very long visit.
how frustrating for her and you