Dementia

Have you recently been diagnosed with dementia? This guide has lots of tips and advice to help you live well with dementia and keeping doing the activities that you enjoy.

Download: The dementia guide: Living well after your diagnosis

The dementia guide includes sections on:

• About dementia
• Treatments
• Living well
• Planning ahead 
• Services for people with dementia
• Research
• Alzheimer’s Society support services
• Other useful organisations

If you are the main person supporting someone with dementia, this guide is for you. It will tell you more about their condition and how it can affect them over time.

Download: Care for a person with dementia; a practical guide

This booklet includes sections on:

• Understanding the person’s diagnosis 
• Taking on the caring role 
• Looking ahead: putting plans in place 
• Understanding and supporting the person with dementia 
• Services, support and housing 
• Managing your finances
• Supporting a person in the later stages of dementia 
• End of life care and support 
• Alzheimer’s Society services and support 
• Other useful organisations 

Dementia Connect

Dementia Connect, from Alzheimer’s Society, is a personalised support service for anyone in Essex with dementia, their carers, families and friends.

Funded by Essex County Council, the service connects people to a whole range of dementia support, by phone, online and face to face.

Alzheimer’s Society understands that dementia affects everyone differently. So whether you, a loved one, a friend or neighbour needs dementia support, we’re here for you.

The charity’s highly-trained dementia advisers and dementia support workers can help people come to terms with their diagnosis and navigate the complicated maze of health and social care services.

Online support

Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Connect online support is available round the clock on the website. Answer a few simple questions about yourself, or someone you know, to get personalised, relevant information and advice. From guides on dementia to advice on making your home dementia friendly, get the information about the things that matter to you.

Online support also includes Talking Point, Alzheimer’s Society’s online community, where you can connect with others in a similar situation and the Dementia Directory where you can search for local services.

Face to face support

Where possible, dementia support workers in Essex can meet you to offer further support, advice and information face to face. They will also connect you to other face to face services in your area, including local support groups.

Support line opening hours*

• Monday to Wednesday, 9am to 8pm
• Thursday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
• Saturday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm

Calls charged at standard local rate.

Get in touch

Phone
0333 150 3456
Email
dementia.connect@alzheimers.org.uk
Website
www.alzheimers.org.uk/dementiaconnect

1. Dementia is not a natural part of ageing

We all forget a name or a face sometimes. Especially as we get older. But dementia is something different.

Memory problems are one of a number of symptoms that people with dementia may experience. These changes are often small to start with, but for someone with dementia they have become severe enough to affect daily life.

2. Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain

Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease cause nerve cells to die, damaging the structure and chemistry of the brain.

There are lots of other causes and no two types of dementia are the same. In different types of dementia there is damage to different parts of the brain.

3. It’s not just about losing your memory

When most people hear the word dementia, they think of memory loss.

And it does often start by affecting the short-term memory. Someone with dementia might repeat themselves and have problems recalling things that happened recently. But dementia can also affect the way people think, speak, perceive things, feel and behave.

4. People can still live well with dementia

Although there is no cure for dementia, scientists and researchers are working hard to find one.

Until that day comes, support and treatments are available that can help with symptoms and managing daily life. These can allow people with dementia to lead active, purposeful lives and carry on doing the things that matter to them most.

5. Alzheimer’s Society is here for anyone affected by dementia

Alzheimer’s Society provides expert information and support to anyone affected by dementia.

In Essex, the charity’s highly trained dementia support workers part of the Dementia Connect service, can offer direct support either on the phone, online or face to face. Call 0333 150 3456 or visit their website.

It’s important that people with dementia can visit their GP and get the care and support they need.

GPs are key to providing a diagnosis, information, support, planning and ongoing management and review for people with dementia and their carers.

Alzheimer’s Society is supporting GPs across Essex to work to become a dementia friendly practice. Those already registered onto the scheme, have pledged to support people affected by dementia with:

• Increasing dementia awareness and understanding for all practice staff
• Making appointments and using the GP telephone systems and website
• Navigating the physical environment of the practice with dementia friendly signage and clear, uncluttered surgeries
• Having systems in place to help to remember to attend appointments
• Understanding the individual needs of people affected by dementia, to enable them to express their concerns with the GP
• Working with patients and their carers to recall details of discussions regarding their care

Dementia Friends is the biggest ever initiative to transform how the nation thinks, acts and talks about dementia.

Becoming a Dementia Friend simply means finding out more about how dementia affects a person – and then, armed with this understanding, doing small everyday things that help. For example, being patient in a shop queue, or spending time with someone you know who’s living with dementia. Find out how to become a Dementia Friend by simply watching an online video.

Website
www.dementiafriends.org.uk