ADVISORS

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Nicky Cave
Nicky is the founder and Managing Director of Eldercare but still plays a very active role in advising people about their options for meeting residential or domiciliary care costs if they are not eligible for Local Authority support. The business was set up after Nicky had personal experience of her grandparents going through the care system yet getting no advice at all about their funding options.

The team at Eldercare offer independent, specialist financial advice to families and residents worried about how they are going to pay for care. They also offer a bespoke service to help families who are thinking about whether to rent a property out or sell it to fund care costs. This ‘assisted move’ service has helped many families who would have otherwise been overwhelmed by the challenge of selling the family home by themselves.

Keith Oliver

Although born, raised and educated in the north, Keith has lived happily in the Canterbury area since 1981. He is married with three grown up children and three grandchildren. For 33 years Keith worked as a teacher and a head teacher in a number of primary schools. He also served a two year secondment to Kent County Council as Canterbury’s Primary Schools’ Advisor.

On New Year’s Eve 2010 Keith’s life changed dramatically when a suspected diagnosis of dementia, in his case Alzheimer’s disease, was confirmed. Between January – April 2011 Keith came to terms with the diagnosis and was determined to fill the vacuum created in his life by having to take early retirement at 55. He decided that as ”one door closes another will open” and that he would use his energy, drive and remaining skills to make a contribution towards public awareness around dementia. Since May 2011 Keith has developed a unique role within the dementia world of being a Dementia Service User Envoy, and has become an important volunteer within the Kent & Medway NHS Partnership Trust.

He has spoken at many conferences to a wide range of audiences. He presented at the Alzheimer’s Disease International conference in March 2012 and at the UK Dementia Congress in November 2012, and has been called upon to support training for care home staff and Kent County Council library, museum, art gallery and Gateway staff. Keith’s skills and experience results in a full diary. He is an active and committed member of the Dementia Action Alliance, and represents Dementia UK on the steering committee for VALID (Valuing Active Life in Dementia) which is jointly run by University College London and NE London NHS Trust. He has completed a number of projects on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Society and has helped to found and co-chair the flourishing KMPT Service User Network (“Kent Forget Me Nots”.)

His story has been covered in local and national newspapers, magazines and television, along with being used world-wide as a dementia training tool via a You Tube film entitled “Keith Oliver’s story”.

“Once a teacher, always a teacher” could easily be Keith’s catchphrase as he seeks to continue to contribute to public life.

Dr. Jill Rasmussen MBChB, FRCGP, FFPM

Jill is a Community Clinician with special interest in psychiatry and neurology. Following an initial period of nine years in the NHS she worked in the pharmaceutical industry in mainland Europe, the US and the UK for ten years where she held senior positions in a number of companies with responsibility for the development of new drugs for psychiatry and neurology. She also spent two years with the Medicines Control Agency (Now the MHRA).

Since 1994, she has combined part-time clinical practice with her own independent research consultancy. In the NHS she is a GP with Special Interest in Dementia, Mental Health and Intellectual Disability who has special responsibility for patients with serious / common mental illness and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. dementia, Parkinson’s); she also has experience as a commissioner. She is the RCGP Clinical Lead for Dementia, Clinical Network SE Clinical Lead for dementia, Chair of the Lewy Body Society Specialist Advisory Group and Primary Care Representative on the RCPsych Old Age Faculty. She has also led the development of the Dementia Roadmap (www.dementiaroamap.info).

Lucy Whitman

Lucy is a writer, editor, teacher and trainer. Lucy cared for her mother who had dementia, and this inspired her first anthology, Telling Tales About Dementia: Experiences of Caring, a collection of personal accounts about looking after someone with dementia, which was selected for the Reading Well: Books on Prescription for Dementia scheme. Her latest book, People with Dementia Speak Out, gives people who have dementia a chance to tell their side of the story. Both books are published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Lucy has given presentations and facilitated workshops at numerous conferences, and writes regularly for the Journal of Dementia Care.

Lucy taught for many years in further and adult education, and has written and edited a range of educational materials. More recently, she has worked in a number of roles supporting family carers, including delivering training courses and workshops, and writing user-friendly guides, for carers and health and social care professionals.

Lucy now works at Healthwatch Enfield, managing their programme of Enter & View visits to hospitals and care homes. Healthwatch Enfield strives to secure tangible improvements to local health and social care services, by gathering the views of local people about the services they use, holding commissioners and providers to account, publishing reports and making practical recommendations.

Lucy lives in London, and is a long-time member of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, a large choir with a reputation for performing and recording a wide range of classical and contemporary music. The choir sings regularly at the Proms, and can also be heard on the soundtrack of many an episode of Doctor Who.

Chris Wilkins
Chris Wilkins, although born a “Kentish Man” and raised as a “Man of Kent”, has lived in Scotland since the early nineties where he is married with three children.

It was in Scotland that Chris began to work closely with the Dementia Services Development Centre Stirling and a number of its associated experts to develop a unique Life Story product for people with dementia. Chris subsequently founded Caring Memories Ltd and under its “Know Me Well” brand developed a number of therapeutic reminiscence products. With the Know Me Well Memory Book proving an ideal output for various reminiscence and life story projects it became apparent that there was an amazing opportunity to develop exciting services and products to support sporting reminiscence in particular, and as a result Chris helped to set-up the Sporting Memories Network CIC.

The Sporting Memories Network has quickly developed into a UK-wide operation with a wide-range of projects developed in partnership with sports clubs, local authorities, CCGs and third sector organisations; projects that encompass not only reminiscence but also light sporting activities to improve the physical, as well as, mental well-being of people with dementia.