A local home care company is helping to address the gradual loss of a loved one to Alzheimer’s and dementia in an upcoming event, which will guide people through coping with seeing a loved one develop the condition.

Home Instead Ilkley is hosting a dementia awareness talk along with grief counsellor and palliative care nurse Jo Onions from Reset Counselling. Together, they will look at the disease from an emotional perspective, from recognising and suspecting signs of dementia, coping with a diagnosis, through to the loss of a loved one before and after bereavement.

There are around 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK, with this figure set to rise to 1.6m by 2040. Often, people make enquiries about Home Instead’s care services and have little knowledge about dementia; it’s a subject that they find difficult discussing with family. Home Instead is keen to raise awareness of the condition across the community so that families are prepared and understand how to adapt to support the wellbeing of a loved one.

The dementia talk will take place at the Clarke Foley Community Centre in Ilkley on Monday 8th January from 11.30am until 1.30pm. It is part of a series of ‘Key To Care’ sessions which support anyone keen to learn more about how to help their loved ones overcome the challenges of old age. They are held at the community centre at the same time, on the first Monday of every month.

Simon White, Director of Home Instead Ilkley, says: “Supporting a loved one living with dementia can be emotionally challenging and something that is not spoken about enough. With an increasing number of people diagnosed with dementia across our area, families are needing more support to help them cope and understand what the emotional and physical journey through dementia could look like.

“We’re thrilled that Jo from Reset Counselling can join us for our next Key To Care event. We have no doubt that her insight into different coping mechanisms will be of great value to our Ilkley community.”

Jo Onions, palliative care nurse and grief counsellor at Reset Counselling, says: “I feel very privileged to have been asked by Home Instead to deliver a talk on Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The main focus of which will centre around bereavement and anticipatory loss.

"I am a palliative care Nurse and Grief Counsellor, working from my practice reset-counselling.co.uk at my home in Addingham. I hope that this will be an enlightening event, with the aim of providing comfort and support to those losing and having lost a loved one, to this disease.”

For more information on Home Instead Ilkley and its Key To Care sessions, call 01943 66 21 88 or visit https://www.homeinstead.co.uk/ilkley/.