The question then is, what is dementia? 

Dementia does NOT describe the whole person!

Thus, before anything else, it will be helpful to remember something important – Dementia is a condition which does not define the whole person (Alzheimer’s Society, 2024).

Alzheimer’s Society, (2024) state that dementia is a human condition affecting identity, relationships and quality of life in which language plays a vital role in ensuring the wellbeing of such a person living with dementia.

Statistics in the UK show that around one million people are currently living with dementia. A number which experts expect to rise exponentially in the coming decades and more individuals, families and communities will experience its impact directly. While often associated with older age, there is evidence to show that tens of thousands of people under the age of 65 years normally referred to as young onset are also living with dementia. Maybe the most striking statistic is that one in three people in the United Kingdom will develop dementia in their lifetime (Alzheimer’s Society, 2024). These figures do not only emphasise the enormity of the problems the condition poses but a also a stack remainder that this is something that touches nearly every family in a way and time to positively construct the social narratives around it.

You may then ask, are words just words?

Alzheimer’s Society (2024) suggests that words are never ‘just words” when caring for a person living with dementia. Such words spoken can become part of the emotional environment the person living with dementia inhabits.  

Studies show that in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and some dementias where memory and reasoning gradually decline, the ability to interpret tone and emotional meaning often remains intact for longer (Alzheimer’s Society, 2024., Sabat et al, 2007). This is known to create a profound imbalance where the person living with dementia may forget what was said, but not how those words made them feel. Such interpretations of language emotionally studies show sticks longer.