Things we are hard wired for
As humans, we have been going for tens of thousands of years and some things are therefore intrinsically human and resonate with us all in different ways. The oldest paintings that have [...]
The experience of World War II
These days there are less and less veterans of World War II and those that are alive now would have been very young and not necessarily taken part in active combat. But [...]
What is best interest’s decision making?
The key issue about best interests, is that it does not become relevant if the person can make decisions for themselves. It is only when they are unable to make that decision [...]
Sex for people with dementia
Firstly and most importantly, people have sex, its fine, there is little enquiry that is done with the sex lives of other people, so it shouldn’t be different for people with dementia. [...]
UN Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The UK is a signatory to this convention, however the UK has not incorporated it into domestic legislation and there is no appeal to the UN for any potential breaches. So at [...]
Dementia does not necessarily mean a lack of capacity
Dementia does not necessarily mean a lack of capacity, but it might. It all depends of what the decision is being made and when it needs to be made. There can often [...]
Advanced Decisions
What are they? Are they binding? Who can make one? Do I need advice? There are many questions about advanced decisions that make them difficult to understand what they do and what [...]
DNR – What does it mean?
DNR stands for “do not resuscitate”, which is an end of life decision, but is limited to CPR, which are chest compression and having the heart re-started. This is not the only [...]
The ethics of research
When there is university academic research, there has to be an ethics consideration and some of the experiments that were done in the past are no longer possible, because of the ethics [...]
Christmas for people with dementia
Lots of people have mixed feelings about Christmas. People can love it, love the presents, the sparkle, the food and seeing all their friends and family. Other people hate it, as everyone [...]