Hi Palliverse folk.
In line with our #PALLANZ Tweetchat, this month Palliverse takes a special focus on Carers. As part of this, we are pleased to welcome a new contributor to Palliverse, Glen Davis. Glen lives in regional Victoria. He is husband, advocate, and principal carer for his wife, Carole, now in the final stage of dementia. He also is father to 3 children, and has 5 grandkids.
I was fortunate to connect with Glen when he contacted us to contribute his thoughts to tomorrow’s Tweetchat. For me, Glen’s story powerfully resonates many feelings and realities experienced by carers in our community. He shares with us several resources he’s discovered that have been personally influential. Although Glen believes the palliative care community understands carers better than most medical disciplines, his story highlights the many gaps that exist in the way our carers are supported.
Hope you can learn from Glen’s story and join us tomorrow at #PALLANZ for a candid discussion of how we provide “Care for the Carers”.
Anna (@AnnaLCollins)
BECOMING A CARER

Pictured: Glen with his wife Carole, 2007
Who do you care for and how did you come to be a carer?
I am the principal carer for my wife, Carole. I retired from my work earlier than planned because Carole was needing more help at home. Her symptoms then were anxiety, discontent and some trouble finding her words. Spending more time with her, I soon learned there were some tasks she could no longer do. She had been a crack typist and that had gone. Her sister and brother-in-law (a nurse and a doctor) noticed symptoms they likened to Alzheimer’s disease, so we started investigating intensively. It took over a year before, in 2011, we reached a diagnosis of fronto temporal dementia. That is a degenerative disease in which cognition, speech and eventually mobility decline progressively as a result of shrinking of the brain. It is a fatal disease with no cure.