Glenys Will tears up describing the helper who keeps her and her husband Ken going.
“He is so important to us. I can honestly say we would have no life without him,” she says. “I trust him so much when I go out. I depend on him and I trust him.”
But her assistant is not a home carer or any kind of human support. Kaspa, who 72 year-old Glenys holds responsible for keeping Ken living in their own home, in Arbroath, is a black labrador. More importantly, he is a dementia dog.
Nine years ago Ken Will, who is 84 was diagnosed with vascular dementia, and life quickly became desperate for Glenys. “Ken just wouldn’t accept it. He shut himself away and life was terrible,” she says.
She worked as a lollipop lady, but it increasingly became a struggle. “I didn’t want to get up in the morning and in the evening I didn’t want to come home,” she says. “Another three or four months and I’d have given up.”
The couple have been married for 53 years, but it looked as though Ken might have to go into some kind of residential care.
“Then we got word of people training dogs to work for people with dementia. Ken and I were lucky enough to be chosen.
“We’ve had Kaspa for six years now and life is great. When Ken gets emotional, Kaspa goes and puts his head on his lap. When he gets angry, Kaspa is there with a toy."
Ken suffers from mini-strokes, and when he does Kaspa makes sure Glenys knows something is wrong. He fetches the post and he brings Ken's medicine pouch when it is time to take pills." He’s Ken’s right hand man," Glenys adds.
The Dementia Dogs scheme was a world first when it was pioneered in Scotland, as a partnership between two charities, Alzheimer Scotland and Dogs for Good, based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It was initially the brainchild of a group of product design students from Glasgow School of Art.
Since Kaspa became on of the first two dogs selected, it has supported 12 families across Scotland with highly trained assistance dogs to help people living with dementia.
The dogs are trained in a variety of specialist tasks, from reminding someone to take their medication, to reducing anxiety and helping build confidence.
When someone with dementia is out and about in the community, the dogs act as an icebreaker, helping counter the isolation often experienced by individuals affected by the condition, and by their carers.
The scheme doesn't just benefit dementia sufferers and their families. It was set up in partnership with the open prison Castle Huntly, which houses low risk prisoners nearing release. The prison provides a training room and outdoor space where dogs can be exercised and taught the specialist skills they need to help someone with dementia. Prisoners can sign up to participate and end up with qualifications which can help them find jobs when they are released and ultimately mean they are much less likely to reoffend.
Now the unique scheme is under threat, with funding coming to an end on August 31st and a campaign has been launched to raise over £30,000 to allow it to continue and expand. Although the two charities have pledged to find the funds to make sure families already supplied with dogs continue to be supported, no further families will ge able to benefit.
Henry Simmons, Chief Executive of Alzheimer Scotland, said: “With over 90,000 people living with dementia in Scotland, almost every family now knows someone living with the illness. As the scale of dementia rises, we need new and innovative approaches to support people to live in their own homes and communities for longer.
“The Dementia Dog project is a fantastic example of collaborative and pioneering working to develop different types of support for people living with dementia and we have been thrilled with its success over the past few years."
The charities have launched an In the Picture campaign to help raise funds and make sure the option of a dementia dog is still part of the picture for families that could benefit from their support. "I urge everyone to support to this incredibly important initiative to help make sure that no one faces dementia alone," Mr Simmons added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here