If anyone out there needs dementia help

It occurs to me that it might be useful to post links to two extremely valuable sources of help and support which I may have mentioned before. These particular links will be of use to English readers only.

Admiral Nurses are mental health nurses specialising in dementia. Admiral Nurses work with family carers and people with dementia, in the community and other settings. Read more here:

http://www.dementiauk.org/what-we-do/admiral-nurses/

Towards the bottom of the page there's a link to a direct phoneline number in case you don't have Admiral Nurses based near you.

The Alzheimer's Society can also be very helpful.  This link will help you find your nearest branch:

http://alzheimers.org.uk/localinfo

Dementia fact sheets available online

The Alzheimer's Society have a collection of very helpful factsheets available
 here.

Dementia UK also have a very helpful factsheet which manages to pack in a large amount of very useful information into one document here.

Meeting an Admiral Nurse

Admiral Nurses are dedicated to helping dementia sufferers, and particularly their carers, in the same way that Macmillan nurses work with people who have cancer. I'd been promised, by our Care Co-ordinator (from the Young Onset Service) that I would be able to have regular meetings with an Admiral Nurse. I felt this could be a great help to me as they obviously have an enormous amount of knowledge and experience and are also trained counsellors. Incidentally, this is one advantage of living in a metropolitan area  -  whole swathes of the population do not have access to Admiral Nurses. Scandalously, there are (according to the dementia UK website) only eighty five Admiral Nurses nationwide and they tend to be concentrated in a few places. However, anyone reading this who thinks they would benefit from a conversation with an Admiral Nurse can try calling 0845 257 9406 or can email: emaildirect@dementiauk.org.

I found the meeting very helpful. Some weeks ago I was aware of being so stressed that I went to the GP about it. He referred me for counselling so I also, eventually, have that as an option. But I think the AN who is a good listener and does not claim to 'know it all', who avoids generalisations and who appears to know a lot about various projects and groups in the area which might be helpful to S is going to be a great asset to me, and therefore to S -  their philosophy is to work with the carer in order to help both the carer and the person being cared for.

After the disappointments of the Young Onset Service, this could be a real boost.