Our mental health support service Qwell offers UK adults free access to one-to-one counselling, moderated peer support, tools such as an online journal and a wide range of therapeutic content.
The following article is an example of therapeutic content. Developed by our clinical content team, it shares one person’s reflections on supporting a loved one with dementia.
Before my mother was diagnosed with dementia, I have to admit I didn't know much about the disease. I thought that people became incapable pretty quickly and that there was an on/off memory switch. One day, the person had their memory; the next, they didn't.
As I've come to realise, the disease is very different to how I imagined. There is no on/off memory switch. It's a progressive disease, and some elements of people's memories last for a long, long time. Others disappear swiftly.
Also, as a friend told me, "When you've met one person with dementia, you've met one person with dementia." There are so many different varieties, and the disease affects people in many different ways.
Numbers on the rise
Close to a million people currently live with dementia in the UK, and research suggests this figure will rise to over 1.3 million by 2040. More and more of us may know someone who has the disease or develop it ourselves. Given that, I'd like to share my experience of how the disease has affected my mother and some of the ways we've learned to cope.