Dementia and Caring in Scotland ,lets get round the table and talk

Hi

For the last 5 years I have been caring for my wee mum Joan who has vascular dementia As my mum struggles on a daily basis with this tragic illness, I struggle as a son to both care for her and witness the suffering she faces For the last year I have in my 22 hours free a week Been traveling round to meet with families and carers ,to hear their life stories .collect letters and  do talks about dementia .I have made my mums life public, a difficult decision without her permission and I have done this for a reason to raise awareness and try and bring more help and understanding on dementia ,I have received hundreds of letters and feel my journey over the last 5 and in particular the last year give me the right to have an opinion on dementia in Scotland today , I feel its of the greatest importance that my story and our opinions are listened to by  organizations and groups who are work in dementia and caring, so I have invited Alzheimer Scotland ,carer Scotland and The princess royal trust for carers along with representative from social work and hopefully government to meet and listen to A son ,Carer and awareness campaigner and the opinions of the families and carers I have met with and the stories I have collected

I am openly inviting them to come and listen to my thoughts and hope they can find a new way of working together to help families like mine .instead of being so separate I want them to join together, they all have qualities to bring and its with great sadness that if we are all after the same thing better care for people and families with dementia then lets all do it together

Its time to sit round the table with carers like me and discuss the best options to work together to bring the best help we can for people

I have invited them all to a round table meeting to discuss my findings I will let you know who agrees to come .and if they can show me another person in Scotland who has met more carers than me in the last yearthen i will ask them to exxtend an open invitaion . I feel I deserve the chance to speak with them after all I have been meeting carers across the country for the last year

I would also like some families and carers to attend  this open discussion to have their say and listen to the people who attend

Tommy