Resources

 
 
 

What people say


“Words are very powerful – they can build you up or put you down. When you are speaking about dementia, remember this.” – Agnes Houston

 

“It is true that I am fundamentally different from you. I am different in ways I can't express and you can't fully perceive or understand. Our brains are different. But I am still a complete human being. I am marching to a different drummer and down a different path than you. But I am still Richard, a human being with all the same needs as any other human being – Richard Taylor

 

Understanding the situation of others is a prerequisite to being able to act caringly. In this context, being able to listen to and act on others’ language, including their use of metaphors, can make a difference – Aud Johannessen, Anders Möller, Per K. Haugen & Stian Bion

 
 

“People can live well with dementia, and the language used about them needs to be normal, inclusive, jargon-free, non-elitist, clear, straight-forward, non-judgmental, and which centres on the person not the disease or social care system, or language trends that come and go.” – Kate Swaffer

 

“The framing power of metaphor means that it can both improve and worsen the experience, depending on whether the metaphors clarify or obfuscate, encourage or demoralise, empower or disempower, and so on.” – Elena Semino, Zsofia Demjén, Andrew Hardie, Sheila Payne, and Paul Rayson