Frank Arrojo

tide Advisory Group Member

About Frank...

I now realise, with hindsight, that I supported my late mum to live with vascular dementia for some 20 years. At the time my caring role began I was working full-time in the civil service. However, during this time I found it increasingly difficult to comprehend what was going on, and when mum had a major stroke I was suddenly responsible for managing her personal care! Initially I was still able to work full-time, mostly from home. But eventually I had to take a career break as the pressures of both caring for mum and working simply became too much.

During all of this time I had no access to any form of specialist dementia support and struggled greatly on my own at home, until I was fortunate enough to be referred to a local Admiral Nurse in the last few months of mum's life. This made a real positive impact on both of our lives, which encouraged me to establish a local dementia carers support group.

However, the Admiral Nurse support I received felt very much like too little too late, which is why for the past 12+ years I have devoted my life to become involved in raising awareness about dementia, and in particular the need for family carers to be both supported and recognised as essential partners in care.

I played an active role in promoting the National Dementia Action Alliance's "Carers Call to Action" campaign, which led to the creation of tide. I am a member of the tide UK Advisory Group.

As a member of tide I played an active part in the drafting of The Dementia Statements. I was invited to the Carer Representative of the NDAA's Dementia Friendly Hospital Taskforce, which led to the publication of a revised Dementia Friendly Hospital Charter and the accompanying "What to expect from us during a stay in hospital" poster.

Since 2010 I have been running Dementia Carers Support Groups, and continue to supported tide and other family carers in setting up and manage new carers support groups across the UK.