About

Theresa Bates – Dementia Care Specialist

Theresa Bates

Hi, I’m Theresa Bates and I’m so glad you decided to learn more about how I support families through the journey with dementia.

After spending two years trying to get a diagnosis for my mum and many people putting her dementia down to “just getting old” there was a feeling of hopelessness in the system and eventually I started to wonder if it was all in my head…That is when I decided that I didn’t want any other family to experience what we did.

That day I enrolled in University and now how a Bachelor Degree in Dementia Care and years of experience working with families just like yours. Families who are unsure where to start, families who question “is this normal’ and families who are experiencing pure heart break over the decline of their loved one.

Don’t disregard the small changes that you see in a loved one. My philosophy around dementia is “Be Proactive, not Re-Active”. My understanding the illness and having the right medical professionals on your team, the journey can be smoother.

I saw counsellors, gurus and people employed by “expert organisations” over the years and they all claimed to understand how I was feeling. The wakeup call came for me when I realised none of them had experienced this for themselves.

It was this light-bulb moment that sparked my passion for helping families of people living with dementia to both understand the disease and to be empowered to take every challenge on – and there will be many.