Dementia Week

Book Covers. Barchester Healthcare and the Alzheimer's Society have teamed up to launch books for children. Care staff working with families had said it was often difficult to explain dementia to young children. The books are available free of charge from Barchester care homes, Alzheimer Society branches and www.barchester.com.
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Barchester contacted agony aunt and grandmother of two Virginia Ironside to write the books, which explain to a child about dementia and visiting grandparents in a care home.
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Gran and Jack playing. Ironside says: "Grandparents and grandchildren often have a very special relationship."
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Jack is sad. "When a grandparent moves to a care home to receive expert care, many things in the child's world change, from the relationship with Gran to the amount of time they get to spend with mum and dad," says Ironside.
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Mum and Jack walking. "The story follows the child who comes to understand more about dementia and answers the questions they might have. 'Why has gran got dementia?', 'Will you get dementia too, mummy?'
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Mum and Jack approaching the home. "Care homes are often strange places for children to visit. But strange as they can be, it's nothing to what a child can imagine if he or she isn't allowed to visit."
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Jack talking to a carer. "With regular visits, they can become very used to the changed personality and location of their grandparent, and fond of the carers looking after them."
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Singing. "With an ageing population and more people experiencing dementia than ever before, it's right that children should be told that dementia is not necessarily frightening, and that their grandparents, although they may appear confused and muddled, often still recognise their grandchildren and can continue to have some kind of relationship with them."
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Hugs. "These books are designed to reassure children that their grandparents' behaviour is normal in dementia, and that even though they may appear to have changed, their grandparents still love them."
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Barchester Healthcare and Virginia Ironside launched the books at Queen's Court care home in Wimbledon, south London, with an exclusive reading by the author.
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Local school children learned about dementia and had lots of questions for the author.
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