But I think… you know, the trouble is that everybody’s circumstances are different, everybody needs a different type of support and a different… so it’s massively intensive work to kind of follow through on that.

It’s not just a matter of… there are a sort of limited number of pathways and you choose this, this, and this, that somebody could kind of like take you through those steps, but actually kind of because your needs are very particular to that person, you know like I said for my mother, dementia-specific activities are not really appropriate. She wants more normal activities.

So, that’s going to be very different for a lot of other people who have been diagnosed with dementia, and then that kind of leads you onto other things. The fact that she doesn’t see herself as being somebody with dementia and yeah, I mean it’s just… oh, like companionship, which is not necessarily dementia-focus, but that companionship, although she is very clearly socially isolated and suffering from social isolation, companionship isn’t really appropriate for her either because that’s a very contrived kind of… she’s not interested in having a very contrived relationship with somebody who you know is just there to kind of small chat with her, that’s not the kind of companionship she wants. She wants to be sort of intellectually engaged and you know her curiosity sparked in some way, and you know a companionship service is not going to provide that, I really don’t think that’s how they see themselves, and or that they’re able to offer that kind of companionship that she wants.

It’s difficult to kind of untangle these things because there are lots of things going on, but you know she’s definitely suffered from social isolation which of course has been exacerbated by Covid, but she seems to have suffered… oh, I don’t know whether more, but it’s certainly having more of an impact post-Covid in terms of her motivation, and… you know, and the fact that she’s not going out nearly as much as she was going out before, and I think part of the reason, sometimes of her staying in bed is the fact that she just doesn’t see any point in getting up because all she does is sit and watch the television. She potters out you know maybe once or twice a week to kind of the local shop, but that… but that’s… you know, that actually seems to exhaust her, so that has been a concern.