BES Survey. Junk Mail and Outings with Dementia

Tuesday, 1st August The BES (British Election Study) revealed its analysis of the recent UK election today. Apparently it WAS all about Brexit, as Prime Minister Theresa May had hoped. However, Remainers had shifted their votes to Labour, in support of a soft Brexit. Increased exposure had made Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn seen less threatening and May less convincing.

The effects of letters and junk mail when you have age related dementia and short term memory loss.

Official letters and bills are quite distressing. They generate a fresh reaction every time they are picked up and read. These are obviously important documents, and they demand  action, or else consequences follow. You decide to do something, put the letter down, forget it, pick it up read it and are worried afresh. This will cycle until either the letter is lost or removed. An unthinking phrasing by a bank or council,  sent direct to a person with age related dementia,  causes considerable stress to them and those around them.  Everything is also so much more expensive when your only memory is of prices decades ago!  There is of course the fun side, when an amusing article or ad is rediscovered time after time during the day. You are amazed and amused afresh each time you rediscover it (though it does pall for others after the fifth or sixth time).

What also pleasantly surprises me is that still some new memories stick. Often these are people or family related facts or events,  whether a new family relationship, or the number of a carer's children. Outings are rare and some of them are remembered too.  Yesterday's trip is remembered for visiting a relative.
The rarity of outings is not for want of trying, but because to prepare, even get dressed, requires remembering that you are going out. You want to go out, you walk past the kitchen, and you have forgotten your outing as you enter the familiar routine of making a drink instead.

Today's successful outing was to a garden centre (and its cafe).