S1/E36: Dementia is Not a Death Sentence; It's a Life Sentence - Kate Swaffer

Topic:

CEO & Co-founder of Dementia Alliance International, Kate Swaffer, shares strategies to overcome life's challenges & be an ally to those living with Dementia.

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Today's guest:

Kate Swaffer is a humanitarian and an award-winning campaigner for the rights of people with dementia and older persons in Australia and globally. She was named 2017 Australian Of The Year in South Australia, and the 2018 Global Leader, 100 Women Of Influence in Australia, and won the Emerging Leader in Disability award in Australia in 2015. Kate is also an Ambassador for the Australia Day Council (SA) and for Step Up For Dementia Research in Australia. She has a Master of Science in Dementia Care, a Bachelor of Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, all which were completed after being diagnosed with younger onset dementia. She also has a graduate Diploma in grief counselling and is a retired nurse and retired chef.

Swaffer is a co-founder, and the CEO and past Chair of Dementia Alliance International, and an elected board member for Alzheimer’s Disease International. She is an Honorary Associate Fellow, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, University of Wollongong, International Fellow, Impact Research Group, University of East Anglia, and has played a key role in campaigning for the human and legal rights for people with dementia including equal access to the CRPD. She has been tireless in her work on reframing dementia as a disability, for rehabilitation for dementia, and is the first person in the world with dementia, diagnosed herself at the age of 49, to be a keynote speaker at the WHO.

Swaffer has contributed to key national and global policy documents including work for the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Quality Rights initiative, and the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) for dementia. With two honorary university positions, has been very active as a researcher, and is a highly published author and poet. Her uncompleted doctoral work, and other research projects includes Dementia as a Disability, Disability Rights, Human and Legal Rights, Stigma, Quality of Life, and the Public Discourse of Dementia.  

Her two published books, What the hell happened to my brain? Living beyond dementia (2016) and Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Another Dementia (2016), are a must read, The first one reflects dementia from the inside out, and the second is what she wished had been available to her when first diagnosed – a one-stop-shop about dementia. Swaffer has also published two poetry books, and countless journal articles, and media appearances, interviews, publications, and blogs.

Read more about Kate Swaffer on her website and very active blog.

If you know someone with dementia living in the community, or in a nursing home, please tell them about Dementia Alliance International (DAI). Services and membership are free.

Read about DAI here.