About this Event
Love and Faith: the whole person after a dementia diagnosis
What's on offer?
Two days at the Byres Community Hub, University of Glasgow, on two subjects dementia services almost never manage to discuss: sexuality and spirituality. The event is led by people living with dementia rather than by professionals speaking about them, with contributors travelling from the United States, Ireland, Belgium and England. Together we will explore a new community support for LGBTQ+ people living with dementia in Scotland. Free to attend, with lunch on both days.
What is it about?
Care plans record Medic*tion, mobility and nutrition. They rarely ask whether a person still loves, still desires, still prays, still doubts. Professionals report feeling unequipped and embarrassed to raise either subject, so neither gets raised, and people living with dementia are quietly reduced to a list of needs.
Sexuality and spirituality are usually treated as separate specialisms. They are two answers to the same question: what remains of a person after a diagnosis, and why do services only feel able to discuss the parts that fit on a form? The cost of that silence falls hardest on LGBTQ+ people, whose partners are excluded from decisions and whose identities are treated as incidental, and who may go back into the closet on entering care.
Over two days, contributors living with dementia will speak about faith, marriage, intimacy, identity and meaning after diagnosis, and the room will work together on three things: exploring a new community support for LGBTQ+ people living with dementia in Scotland, developing LGBTQ+ resources and training for Scotland's network of around 47 Meeting Centres, and identifying research opportunities and learning from other countries.
Who is leading the event?
- Br John-Richard Pagan, spiritual director living with dementia, USA
- Kevin Cullen, living with dementia, member of the Dementia Research Advisory Team, Alzheimer Society of Ireland
- Tom Hennessy, care partner, advocate and research contributor, Ireland
- Dáithí Clayton, advocate and researcher living with dementia, Belgium
- Patrick Kitana Ettenes, living with dementia, Bring Dementia Out, Manchester
- Howard Gordon, living with dementia, Deepness and Meeting Centres England, Sheffield
- Arlene Bunton, Mac Research and Consultancy, Scotland
- David Wilson-Wynne, University of Stirling, Scotland
Hosted by Meeting Centres Scotland in partnership with LGBT Health & Wellbeing.
Who is it open to:
People living with dementia, their partners, families and carers, and LGBTQ+ people affected by dementia.
Of interest to:
Students and researchers in dementia, ageing, LGBTQ+ health, spiritual care and health inequalities; Meeting Centre members, volunteers and staff; health and social care practitioners; faith communities and chaplains; care home and housing providers; and policy colleagues working on dementia and equality.
Event venue & nearby stays
Clarice Pears Building, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, United Kingdom
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