“Share how you are coping”

We are highlighting and celebrating family carers that have accessed our services.

 

Bruce from Bolton looks after both of his parents.  His mum lives with both dementia and more recently, physical disabilities, whilst his Dad is blind.

Taking responsibility for them full-time, Bruce was referred to our communication course which helped him to understand dementia better, as well as open wider conversations with other local people about caring, reducing the feelings of isolation and loneliness that may come alongside caring.

 

Bruce said: “As a carer, you tend to put your needs and essentially, your life, on hold. You prioritise the people you care for because you want them to just be happy and comfortable.

 

“On the course, we learnt that if you have met one person with dementia, then you’ve met one person with dementia, because it affects everyone differently.  We learnt that dementia is not so much a mental deterioration, but a breakdown in the ability to communicate. The information might still be retained, but they may not be able to talk about it”.

 

“Caring can be very isolating, so the course helped everyone feel less lonely and allowed us to all share how we were coping.  It was quite interesting to simply just be able to talk to other people there and to hear their different experiences of caring. I’d actually never met another carer before”.

 

“I looked forward to the training sessions every week and simply having a chat with everyone. It helped me to reflect on what was happening in my life and helped me to understand what was going on in a more objective way.  Caring is a stressful thing to do, but it is rewarding. In my case, I am giving back to the people that spent so many years once looking after me.”

Find out more about Carers Week here.

Find out more about Empowered Conversations here.