GAVIN WATKINS:
[00:00:04] When I was diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer’s in Cornwall, and the psychiatric nurse used to come and give me the tablets,
[00:00:13] he would phone up once a month and then after he’d finished work and say “Everything okay?”
[00:00:19] We’d say “Yes, no problems”.
[00:00:22] “Okay I’ll be round with your prescription”, and when he turned up it was “See you next month”, and that was it.
[00:00:29] And I saw a GP once a month there. Nothing at all, no support whatsoever.
[00:00:36] We came here and because we moved areas I had to go and see a specialist and they suggested I went to these memory cafes because I was just vegetating and doing absolutely nothing.
[00:00:48] I had no conversations whatsoever, it was a yes and no, if you could get that out of me.
[00:00:55] I started going, I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to go again after the first week.
[00:01:01] The second week no so bad, now I just can’t leave them alone, I’ve got to go to them, I’ve got to be there every week if I can.
[00:01:11] We’re lucky, we have a vehicle, but there’s people out there that haven’t and it’s absolutely ridiculous the amount of people that can’t get there.
[00:01:21] There’s over 9,000 that aren’t getting help, what they need.
[00:01:27] The services are out there, the memory cafes are there, but it’s being able to get to them is the biggest problem we’ve got.
[00:01:34] I’ve set up a charity, Blaenau Gwent Dementia Community, to help people in Blaenau Gwent with dementia to get to these places because of transport is our biggest problem.
[00:01:34] It brings you out into the community.
[00:01:50] You go to chat, you talk to other people with the same problems as yourself and other problems.
[00:01:58] The carers are able to talk to other carers so they know they’re not left on their own, and they’re not the only doing this sort of work.
[00:02:07] What we’ve got to remember is every one of us is different, we’re not all the same, we all need different treatment.