Lena O Sullivan of Mallow Day Care and Home Care Team, Community Garda John Fitzgerald, Dr. Kevin Quaid, Chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group, Estelle Varney, President of Mallow Chamber, Councillor Gearóid Murphy, and Mairead Dillon, Alzheimer Society Head of Fundraising, pictured at the Dementia-Inclusive Community Event which was hosted by The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and Mallow Chamber of Commerce at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow.
Last Thursday was in a way brilliant for Mallow town and the people who live, work and shop there. There are over 7,500 people living in Cork with some type of dementia and when you add in at least four people in that family who are directly affected then you are up on 30,000 people.
The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and Understand Together provide free training for businesses in cities , towns and villages all over Ireland on how to become a dementia-inclusive community and it’s been going on all over Ireland with nearly twelve months now.
Clodagh Whelan, Advocacy Manager for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland began the day with a visit to Mallow Train Station where we met with management and staff from Mallow, Cork and Dublin and we did the training with them. Irish Rail have really taken a lead in this and we have been working with them since before Covid.
The staff in Mallow Train Station are second to none and go above and beyond to help people in every way possible, and now that they have been given dementia-specific training they will make the life of a person with dementia, and not just dementia but all disabilities so much easier, and the same for people’s caregivers. They can be assured that when someone they love or care for is travelling with Irish Rail that their loved one will be taken care of. Please never be afraid to ask for help because everyone needs a little help every now and again. I can tell you that before we ever worked with Irish Rail that I would never travel on my own but now I have no problem travelling to and from Mallow to Dublin on the same day. If you get a chance and you are travelling by train, call in to Paddy at the shop in the station, he has the most beautiful coffee in Ireland. Tell him Kevin sent you!!
During the next few months, you will see stickers appear in business premises in Mallow, telling you that the business – whether it’s a shop, restaurant, pub – has done the dementia training and the staff know what to look out for and will be more than willing to help in any way. The aim is that we keep rolling out this training to every city, town and village in Ireland. One of the latest big businesses to become dementia-inclusive is Mahon Point Shopping Centre in Cork city and that has been a massive achievement.
Last Sunday, January 28th, was the first ever Lewy Body International Day and it was a day of celebration worldwide to bring attention to those people who have Lewy Body Dementia as well as their carers. It’s the most common type of dementia, but is unknown to people. Now I know that might not make sense, but it’s the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s. There are between 6,500 and 10,000 people in Ireland alone with this disease, and a lot of people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. No one ever wants to get a diagnosis of anything, but the advantages of getting an early diagnosis far outweigh those of not getting a diagnosis until late in life, and in some cases it’s too late. When you get an early diagnosis, it doesn’t mean the end of your life and an early diagnosis means that you can still live a good life with some changes, and you can put a proper plan in place for yourself or your loved one. Last Sunday also happened to be Dr Lewy’s birthday and it’s sad to think that all those years ago that Dr Lewy and Dr Alzheimer worked in the same lab. Alzheimer’s got all the limelight and Lewy Body Dementia was pretty much left behind until now.
Lewy Body Ireland is just waiting for its charity status and hopefully as the year progresses there will be a lot more information and help there for the people who have it, and the help is there if you need it. Each and every month we have a Zoom meeting called ‘Tea Time with Lewy, it’s for an hour and at every meeting we have people who have Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s, carers, clinicians and researchers, so if you feel like tuning into the Zoom meeting and a safe space, just email me and I will let you know how to join. This month it’s on 22nd February from 10am-11 am to facilitate the people who join from Australia and New Zealand, then next month it will be 4pm-5pm to facilitate people from America, so as you can see it’s far reaching. That’s it for me for this week, only to congratulate Mallow on their fantastic work in taking up this initiative and I know that it will be a great success. And thank you to everyone who has becoming involved in ensuring that it will happen.
My books are as always available in the usual places or on Amazon and Kindle, or indeed if you want a signed copy just email me and I can arrange it. If you want to contact me about anything, my email is kevinquaid9@gmail.com, so until next time, stay safe and look after one another.