Spotting Dementia In A Loved One

While many realise that repeatedly forgetting names can be a red flag for dementia, few know that using repetitive phrases as well as stuttering or mispronouncing words, can also be a sign.

Around 850,000 people are living with dementia in the UK and 225,000 more people will develop dementia this year – that’s one every three minutes. However, the symptoms of Dementia are not all that clear… a YouGov survey of more than 4,000 adults revealed that many people are confused about what are and are not signs of dementia.

Many people thought that forgetting why you have walked into a room (39%) might be a sign, which could happen to anyone. For a person with dementia, it is not so much why they walked into a troubling room, but the room itself seems unfamiliar.

Warning Signs

Seek medical advice if memory loss is affecting daily life, especially if you:

Struggle to remember recent events, although you can easily recall things that happened in the past
Find it hard to follow conversations or programmes on tv
Forget the names of friends or everyday objects
Cannot recall things you have heard, seen or read
Lose the thread of what you are saying
Have problems thinking and reasoning
Feel anxious, depressed or angry
Feel confused even when in a familiar environment or get lost on familiar journeys
Find that other people start to notice or comment on your memory loss