Oakham carer launches bespoke dementia consultancy business for Rutland and Stamford

A former teacher has made it her mission to help dementia sufferers get the best out of life and change perceptions of the condition.

Sarah Collins, from Oakham, launched her own bespoke consultancy service last month to help those living with dementia in Rutland and the Stamford area.

Using a humanist approach to therapy, she aims to “maintain dignity and individuality” with bespoke sessions tailored to individual interests and diagnoses and designed to “engage and stimulate”.

There are more than 200 different types of dementia, each with differing symptoms.

“It’s really fun. If someone wants to do woodwork, then I’ll research, I'll do practice and we do woodwork. If they want to play pickleball, we play pickleball,” Sarah explained.

“You get a bespoke service because I'm looking at that individual and not generalising them. Whatever they want to do, that's what we do.”

Sarah is passionate that those diagnosed with dementia shouldn’t then live a life defined by it.

“In society, there are major stigmas to do with dementia and we're always chipping away, trying to dispel those,” she said.

“We try to encourage everyone to get to know people living with dementia, and find out that, before the diagnosis, they would have been just the same as you and I.

“Once you get a diagnosis there’s such an emphasis ‘oh poor you, can you still do this or that?’

“Of course they can. If you've sailed all your life, the day after diagnosis, you're not going to change.

“You may need someone else out there to help, but it doesn't mean life stops the day after diagnosis.”

Sarah also works with family members to offer advice and support.

“Dementia doesn't just affect the person that has a diagnosis, it affects everyone around them and the wider society,” she said.

As well as holding a masters degree in dementia, Sarah carried out audits on National Trust properties to make them more inclusive.

She also has personal experience, both as a carer and having received a dementia diagnosis herself.

“Back in 2017, I had brain surgery at Addenbrooke’s to rectify dementia - it was the only dementia that could be rectified by an operation,” said Sarah.

“I could only turn left when riding a bike. My brain wouldn't get the message to my hand on my handlebar to veer right.

“Once I had my operation I remember going to the coast, I got on a bike and I could turn left and right. It's miraculous.”

On top of her work with clients, Sarah also offers an audit service for businesses, such as shops and hair salons, to help them become more dementia friendly and aware.

Through personal research she says people with dementia and their carers are more likely to use a business if it has dementia-friendly status.

“It may be just a case of changing lightbulbs into natural bulbs, because people living with dementia don't like that sharp light,” she said.

“Just by tweaking simple things, you can make your property much more appealing for people living with dementia.

“So one hairdresser, for example, may end up getting more business than another that ignores that advice.”

She added: “People talk about dementia as a death sentence, but it isn't.

“We're all going to die at the end of our lives, but you can live as well as possible in the time you've got.”

For more information, email hello@sarahcollins.co.uk or call 07946 486069.