Helping people with learning disabilities to understand ageing and living with dementia
Date published: 21 May 2015
Helping People with Learning Disabilities to understand ageing and living with Dementia
A new handbook, Talking Together: facilitating peer support activities to help people with learning disabilities understand about growing older and living with dementia is being launched by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities on Wednesday 20 May as their contribution to Dementia Awareness Week.
Christine Towers, who wrote the handbook after facilitating peer support groups with Cindy Glover, said: “More needs to be done to help people with learning disabilities understand the changes associated with the ageing process and dementia. People with a learning disability are at greater risk of developing dementia compared to the rest of the population and the risk is significantly higher for people with Down’s syndrome.
“The timing of this handbook is particularly important because with the move from residential care to supported living, more people are in shared houses in the community and will need support to cope with dementia if they or one of their housemates develop the disease.”
Talking Together is comprised of 20 participative activities to talk together, share experiences and have fun whilst developing understanding: this approach encourages empathy and active involvement rather than simply giving information.
Group sessions were run in two places, one a shared house for six people, one of whom had dementia and a day centre for older people with learning disabilities where, again, one person had dementia.
The handbook should be particularly useful for staff in day centres or residential care, health practitioners in community teams and personal assistants.
Do you have a story for us?
Let us know by emailing news@rochdaleonline.co.uk
All contact will be treated in confidence.
Most Viewed News Stories
- 1“We’re not safe”: Furious locals looking to sell up and move after controversial homeless complex...
- 2Controversial plans to build homes on beloved green space mysteriously withdrawn
- 3A new generation of gym opening in Rochdale
- 4Rochdale’s peregrine falcons lay first egg in their new nesting box
- 5New investor in Rochdale AFC announced as board's preferred choice
To contact the Rochdale Online news desk, email news@rochdaleonline.co.uk or visit our news submission page.
To get the latest news on your desktop or mobile, follow Rochdale Online on Twitter and Facebook.