Friendship and dementia: Hints and tips on supporting friends with dementia | via Alzheimer Scotland
For people living with dementia, maintaining meaningful friendships can be a difficult task. A dementia diagnosis can turn someone’s world upside down and it’s at this time that friendship is valued the most, not only to offer comfort and support but to help to maintain an essence of normality.
In a 2017 poll of more than 500 participants, Alzheimer Scotland’s ‘Friendship and Dementia’ survey highlighted some disheartening statistics:
- Two out of three people living with dementia have lost friendships following their diagnosis.
- 60% of people living with dementia felt reluctant to attend social situations after their diagnosis.
- 91% of participants felt that there was not enough public knowledge of dementia and what it’s like to live with the illness.
These findings show that more must be done to improve public understanding of attitudes towards dementia, so we are able to help friendships adapt following a diagnosis and throughout the illness. Alzheimer Scotland’s Friendship and Dementia leaflet provides hints and tips on how to provide emotional and practical support to people with dementia, at all stages of the illness. The leaflet provides tips such as:
- Find out more about dementia and how it’s likely to affect their everyday life. This will help you to support your friend and make you more prepared for changes in the months and years ahead
- Accept the person your friend is now; try not to draw comparisons with how they were before developing dementia
- Make sure to talk directly to your friend, especially in social situations.
Full article at Alzheimer Scotland
Click here to access the ‘Friendship and Dementia leaflet’.