Dementia Gateway Service

Anyone worried about dementia, diagnosed with the condition, their families or carers, can ask for help from Dementia Advisors. They offer tailored advice and information about living well with dementia. This can include:

• Help with a diagnosis
• Dementia advice and information
• Carer support
• Independent living
• Community and social support
• Accessing short and long term support
• Accessing The Crystal Gateway

The Crystal Gateway is a dementia centre that you can access after a social care assessment. Crystal Gateway provides respite and beneficial activity sessions at the dementia centre or in a person’s home.

The Crystal Gateway also offers a meeting space for people living with dementia and their carers every Wednesday, 10am to 12pm. You can have a cuppa, chat with others and get help with any queries or support. Simply pop along or call 01384 813315 to find out more.

Call 0300 555 0055 for information, advice and support about the Crystal Gateway.

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem solving and other thinking abilities, also known as cognitive abilities, that are severe enough to interfere with daily life. There are different types of dementia, Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, other types of dementia that you may have heard of include vascular dementia, Lewy Body dementia, and Frontotemporal dementia.

If you are worried about memory problems, for example becoming forgetful, becoming confused and needing help with daily tasks, problems with understanding, or maybe a change in behaviour a visit to your G.P will help.

The following could be early signs of dementia: 

• struggling to remember recent events, but easily recalling things that happened in the past
• struggling to follow conversations or TV programmes
• forgetting names of friends or everyday objects
• repeating things or losing the thread of a conversation
• having problems thinking or reasoning
• feeling anxious, depressed or angry about memory loss
• feeling confused even when in a familiar environment

It's really important to get a diagnosis as early as possible, as there are medications that may be able to help, you can also plan for the future. Your GP can help with this. Your GP will discuss with you your symptoms and medical history and may carry out a series of tests to rule out other possible causes for your symptoms. 

It may be that your symptoms are related to other health conditions, your GP will be able to undertake an initial assessment, talk to you about your symptoms and how they affect you, use some standard tests to check your memory and understanding and carry out a physical examination or request further tests. Your GP may refer you onto a specialist for further assessment such as a memory assessment service where a more detailed assessment is undertaken by talking to you about the changes you have noticed, your past medical history, maybe arrange for a brain scan.

It can be scary to be diagnosed but there is lots of help and support out there to enable people with dementia to live as full a life as possible. You could seek help from a support group, join an online community, talk to one of our dementia advisors. It can take time to adjust but there is a lot of information available about dementia.

An early and accurate diagnosis means that people living with dementia can access support and potentially treatments that can help to improve their quality of life and enable them and their families to plan and make decisions about the care and support they may need in the future.

Useful links to information:

Dudley Adults online portal – https@//adultsocialcare.dudley.gov.uk

Alzheimer’s society – https://www.alzheimers.org.uk

Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline – https://www.dementiauk.org

Our booklet gives information and advice on living well with dementia, along with details of support on offer.

Our Independent Living brochure has detailed information on the full range of services available to help keep you safe, secure, happy, well and independent in your own home. It also has advice on returning to independence after a period of illness or hospital stay.

For more information, advice, help or support please contact our dementia gateways. View more information on Dementia on our Community Information Directory.  The Alzheimer's Society also provides valuable services, tailored to the particular needs of people with any type of dementia, and to their carers. 

Contact the Adults Front of House Service.

Contact The Crystal Gateway, Brierley Hill
Telephone: 01384 813315