Reclaiming the narrative of caring

  At tide we believe that carers are the agents of change in their own lives, their communities and wider society. We want carers of people with dementia to realise the true value of who they are, what they do and their potential. We see a world where the human rights, voices and needs of carers are fundamental to the structure of society. We work to achieve this through our development programme, involvement network and influencing opportunities. Carers realising the value of who they are, what they do and their potential is crucial. We want carers to reclaim the narrative of what it means to care for someone with dementia, own their experience and take pride in it. The current definition of a carer has societal expectations, assumptions and implied recognition attached to it and this is too limiting to what the true lived experience is like. We need carers to break through this and for them to reclaim this part of their life. As part of this we need to speak up openly and honestly about what the unique reality of caring for someone with dementia is. In the next month there are various awareness and action weeks that are of relevance to us at tide. From the 20^th – 26^th of May we will see Dementia Action week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. From the 3d- 9^th of June we will see Dementia Awareness week in Scotland and from the 10^th – 16^th of June we will see Carers Week across the UK. For these awareness weeks we will focus on reclaiming the narrative of caring for someone with dementia. We will shine a spotlight on the various pieces of work that carers are involved with across the different nations to give a true picture of what is going on to support this vision. We will use this to start a conversation on what the reality of caring is and emphasise carers as individuals in their own right – who are not defined by their caring role but who own their truth. Join us in our campaign and our mission by keeping an eye out on our social media channels and website. To take part in our social movement for change please join our involvement network here.