New blog series: Caring for someone with a dual diagnosis of dementia and paranoid schizophrenia

Beautifully written by Helen Sloan, one of CRN Wessex’s public contributors, this blog series tracks living with and then caring for a mother with paranoid schizophrenia who was later diagnosed with mixed dementia and latterly Alzheimer's disease. 

It’s a personal story, but it also references studies and useful links that are relevant to the blog.

Part 1 was published earlier this year, with part 2 and part 3 published this week, Dementia Action/Awareness Week. 

Part 1: The dual diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and dementia
Part 2: Living independently at home as dementia progressed
Part 3: Living in a Care Home

Helen Sloan, author of the blog series 'Caring for someone with a dual diagnosis of dementia and paranoid schizophrenia'

Helen Sloan, author of the series comments: “Hopefully some of this blog will be recognisable to other carers, and for researchers perhaps it might confirm your thoughts, spark debate, or inspire ideas for future and current research”.

Helen’s final words as part of the series: "Having time to reflect, I have resolved that I would like to continue to dedicate time to people with dementia and have thought about how I might share my experiences as a carer and pay back for the help we received over those years with mum (sharing this blog, and deciding on the extent of what to share is part of it). Recently, I have taken part in research and sat on various boards and groups for the Join Dementia Research programme to encourage people (those with a diagnosis of dementia, carers and healthy people) to take part in various relevant research studies. It has helped me to remember mum while making a difference to research and development of treatments as well as a potential cure for dementia. You could help too.”

Dementia Action/Awareness Week is an annual campaign run by the Alzheimer’s Society. Taking place this week, 13-19 May it aims to bring people together from across the country under a unified theme to take action on dementia.