I still have a meaningful contribution to make

I am Andrew Sims. A member of the Bromley DASH (Dementia Assisting Self Help) Group. I am a user of the Memory Service provided in Bromley, Kent.

Prior to retirement I was the manager of the Residential Underwriting Department of an international bank and had been employed in a variety of positions in a Building Society and latterly the Bank for almost 40 years.

My dementia diagnosis was not, surprisingly, a huge shock for me since I had become aware over a period of time that my memory had changed in certain specific areas, particularly centred on name recall and word recall, although I recognise that I had developed strategies to manage the issues.

Meeting with other people in the DASH group with similar related concerns has enabled me to come to terms with the condition and together we have been able to formulate processes and strategies which have been promulgated and utilised by others outside the group.

I am encouraged that I am still able to make use of my analytical skills in problem solving and staff management and recently I have engaged in two opportunities to represent service users when new supporting staff have been interviewed and appointed.

In the second of these opportunities I was a member of an interviewing panel of four persons. The applicants for the role being offered, their bona fides having been previously established, were given a written case study and asked to describe what steps or actions they would propose to meet the needs of those in the case study. The interview continued with a series of questions (all candidates received the same case study and questions) and at the end of each interview, after the candidate had left, the panel all offered their views and conclusions. I genuinely felt that my opinions on all the candidates were valued. Pro's and con's were debated openly. The other members of the panel scored the candidates on the answers to the case study and series of questions. I did not directly contribute to that scoring process. Having seen all the candidates and considered the scores we were agreed that one candidate marginally performed better than one other and the scores confirmed our views. A decision was made and a candidate has been made an offer.

I was very happy to contribute to the process. Having been retired for over 20 years it was a welcome fillip to my own sense of well being that I am not dying from dementia I am living with it and still have a meaningful contribution to make.