Carers’ Stories

Book excerpt: It is estimated that 750,000 people are living with dementia in the UK and 500,000 partners, family members and friends are involved in caring for someone with dementia at a value of £6 billion a year, if care was provided by health and social care services (Department of Health, 2009). This book is about hearing the stories of six carers; half the carers identified as lesbian or gay. The findings were illuminating, as the carers did not experience the person with dementia as a burden, but rather found contact with health and social care services to be burdensome due to the fragmentation of services, an absence of knowledge about carers’ entitlements, and care services seeing the dementia first rather than the person. Positive aspects in the relationships between the carers and the cared-for endured. This book is relevant to anyone who supports a person with dementia in a paid or unpaid capacity, or has a role in the provision or commissioning of services and wants to understand better the policy context, and, most importantly, the strategies that support people with dementia to maintain a sense of identity and wellbeing.