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<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s not what a loved one needs to hear at an exceptionally difficult and emotional time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sile Tankov cares for her husband, Stefan, who was diagnosed with dementia aged just 39<\/p>\n
A Northern Ireland woman has opened up about her husband’s dementia diagnosis at 39 as a new report exposes shortfalls in dementia training here.<\/p>\n
She was speaking as huge injustices in dementia training have been revealed across social care. Half of staff receive just one to two hours of dementia learning despite people living with dementia being one of the biggest groups drawing on social care.<\/p>\n
Sile Tankov cares for her husband, Stefan, who was diagnosed with dementia aged just 39. Sile from Lisburn<\/a> met her husband on a night out in 2019. In September 2022, she began noticing changes in Stefan’s personality.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Man running 33 consecutive marathons including in Belfast is facing gut-wrenching future<\/a>READ MORE: ‘I lost my dad to Alzheimer’s and now I honour his memory and help other families facing dementia’<\/a><\/p>\n Sile thought perhaps Stefan, now 40, was depressed. Their GP agreed. Tests also discovered Stefan had type-2 diabetes. The family<\/a> later decided to take Stefan to hospital where tests revealed his cognitive function was “very low”. Doctors ordered MRI and CT scans with a full psychological report.<\/p>\n Following CT and MRI scans and a lumbar puncture, he was given the devastating diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.<\/p>\n A few months after her Stefan\u2019s diagnosis a senior nurse said to her: \u201cIf that was my partner, I would be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThat\u2019s not what a loved one needs to hear at an exceptionally difficult and emotional time. In the same placement, I had members of staff report to me that Stefan had urinated in the corridor, in a tone that implied he\u2019d somehow done it on purpose, even though he was in fact incontinent as a result of his dementia.<\/p>\n \u201cI was constantly made to feel that Stefan’s behaviour \u2013 he would bang on walls and windows \u2013 was a problem, and annoying to staff and other residents. I was always apologising for these behaviours that were actually out of his control.\u201d<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s Society is warning that serious shortfalls in dementia training in Northern Ireland<\/a> are leaving social care staff unprepared, unsupported, and putting people with dementia at risk of inadequate care.<\/p>\n New findings from research commissioned by Alzheimer\u2019s Society and led by experts at the Centre for Dementia Research at Leeds Beckett University and IFF Research show that half of all reported training packages offered just one to two hours of dementia-specific content.<\/p>\n In Northern Ireland, despite the majority of those surveyed having completed some kind of dementia<\/a> training, research still found that up to 42% of social care staff have minimal levels of basic dementia knowledge and over half are likely to start caring for people with dementia with no training at all.<\/p>\n
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