Jenny's Diary

Jenny’s Diary is a free to download booklet and a set of postcards aimed at supporting conversations about dementia with people who have a learning (intellectual) disability.

Conversations about dementia are never easy. All dementia strategies in the UK state that everyone is entitled to know of their diagnosis, not only as a human rights issue but as part of developing appropriate and individualised post-diagnostic support.

Currently, there is limited guidance on how to talk about dementia to an individual with a learning disability. There is typically a fear of what will be understood, uncertainty over the words to use, and concern over how to cope with the response.

Jenny’s Diary takes a three-step approach to address this:

1. Opens dialogue about why Jenny is behaving differently, and how she can be supported to live as well as possible with dementia.
2. Suggests how to have a conversation with Jenny about her diagnosis of dementia.
3. Contains guidance to talk about dementia with George, Jenny’s partner. This recognises the important role that friends play.

Written by Karen Watchman, Irene Tuffrey-Wijne and Sam Quinn