Dory and I went to a conference at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. It was set up by Social Care Wales with the aim of sharing all that is being provided for people living with dementia in Wales in order to share thoughts on better ways of communicating and engaging with peeps like us. As per usual at these events, the place was bursting with professions. DEEP was represented by Karen, Nigel and us two. We were probably the only four people with dementia in the room.
It all came down to stuff that is already well-documented…..Services are a postcode lottery. Memory clinic nurses can’t talk to social workers. This one cannot share information with that one, so for example you get two people with diagnoses living a couple of doors away on each other but the nurse who knows them both and thinks they’d benefit by getting together, cannot introduce them. For me, a more joined up approach would not only be less expensive for the NHS but in order to get anywhere with that, the entire attitude requires a change of approach. If more providers consulted with US to get a consensus of what our needs are, that would help too. How can they possibly know what we’d like? Otherwise we will forever continue to get what they (in their wisdom) think we want. Perhaps this is too simplistic a view.
Anyway, the venue was insufficiently well signposted, and we didn’t know which way to go. We laugh at it but in retrospect, it’s a slight insult to our intelligence. Neither of us are idiots… We were both specialists in our chosen subject once upon a time. We just need a bit of help.
Anyway, I’ve finished ranting so I should report that the meeting closed at lunchtime whereupon we embarked upon a little retail therapy before getting the train home. My advice would be to avoid Cardiff until the shops have restocked.
Frances Isaacs
31st January 2020
