Pathways Through Dementia Blog

The fact that Andy Burnham has lived experience of dementia is encouraging in terms of pushing our client group up the political agenda, in my view. For far too long empty promises and what I perceive to be a complete lack of understanding of the emotional and financial toll dementia takes on everyone involved has Read More

We get asked lots of questions about live-in care which is often the preference of the person with dementia and their family. We asked Gary Derbyshire of Promedica24 Live in Care to provide further information on this to assist our enquirers. Here's what he sent us... Every journey through dementia is unique, shaped by the Read More

This year has seen enquiries to our helpline rise significantly to a level which will become unsustainable if it continues unfortunately. Consequently I have taken the decision to hire another member of staff who will commit a few hours a week to emails so that we can continue to respond to people living with dementia Read More

I recently had an email from someone who had asked AI about the role of an attorney (through Lasting Power of Attorney for Finance and Property) which advised them that as an attorney they were prohibited from ever offering a third party top up should the donor need a care home where the family wanted Read More

We receive a LOT of calls about properties where there are outstanding mortgages/equity release/lifetime mortgages etc so we asked our colleague Simon Dexter to put together an overview of these areas as we are not competent or insured to talk to our callers about what can end up being quite complex financial situations. These topics Read More

The impact dementia has on a couple cannot be summed up in a few words and is very specific to those individuals and their relationship. Combining my wealth of personal and professional experience of dementia with my counselling training I am now offering couples therapy to people where one partner has recently been diagnosed with Read More

One of the most difficult topics I discuss with people contacting our helpline are situations where a loved one is in a care home and the attorney or attorneys have instructed the care home to deny visits to certain friends and/or family. At a Court of Protection training day I attended some time ago I Read More

Having listened to thousands of stories from family members about all aspects of the dementia journey for 20 years, I felt began to consider the possible benefits of offering mediation sessions combined with a knowledge of the law. I anticipated that this could really help alleviate stress and conflict between relatives/friends of the person with Read More

Pathways Through Dementia takes over 1000 enquiries a year mainly due to referrals from Dementia UK’s helpline and their Admiral Nurses. We also receive referrals from Alzheimer’s Society, memory clinics and people find us through Google searches. We talk to people about a range of topics such as paying for care, Lasting Powers of Attorney Read More

We always feel very redundant at Pathways saying ‘You need to make a formal complaint…’ when people feel that they need their concerns listened to urgently and acted upon immediately when a decision for their loved one seems to be going in an unsatisfactory direction. However sometimes just asking about the complaints procedure is enough Read More