Comments on: What’s it like to be an unemployed dementia specialist?

By: Exciting work for Doctor Dementia! | Doctor Dementia and the Dementia Adventure

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 07:00:19 +0000

[…] surprised at how hard it has been to find paid work. You can read more about that in my post on what it’s like to be an unemployed dementia specialist. You can read more about my internships in my posts on Brocaféen, Skelhuset – forest […]

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By: Carrie Peterson

Carrie Peterson — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:04:11 +0000

Thank you for your comments and for the ideas – they are really helpful! I have decided to keep applying for relevant jobs and also start to make a plan to work independently in the field (your ideas gave me some inspiration). Thanks also for the info on publishing, I am just starting to look into this, so it’s nice to hear from someone who knows the rules 😉
I didn’t mean to give the impression that Denmark is not promoting increased funding and work in the area of elder and dementia care – they definitely are, and these were hot topics in the recent elections. The problem, for me, is that they are in kind of a transition zone right now, taking an evaluation of the state of things and deciding where to appropriate money. I am also finding that when these new initiatives get going, they are often already developed or in discussions before they go public, which makes it hard to get a job when they have mostly decided what will be done and who will be doing it. With the recent election and current changes in government, I am writing to the administrative offices and letting them know my competencies, interests, and hoping that they will keep me in mind as they develop new initiatives – or, even better, contact me to help develop them!

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By: controversialcook

controversialcook — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 20:40:17 +0000

To be honest I don’t like organizations, charities of government bodies at all nor I trust them one bit. They seem to me to be arthritic institutions riddled and run by bureaucracy and self interests. When you look at charities websites such as the Alzheimer of dementia societies you see always the word “Donate” highlighted and that is all they care about. Donations for keeping their charities going and pay the high wages of their bosses or top staff. To them Alzheimer or dementia or cancer etcetera is a business. A friend of mine who worked as an accountant for several charities said to me that if say a cure for Alzheimer or cancer would be found the heads of the respective charities wouldn’t be that happy because they would loose their jobs. I know that it sounds cynical but this is the reality. Nowadays they all talk and praise themselves but nobody really cares.
Anyway I hope that you get the job that you have applied for, but if not and you keep having no success I think that you should totally change your approach and starting something of your own. For instance you could hire a church hall or any venue and offer therapy classes in whatever you like to groups of people who would like to prevent dementia and Alzheimer or those who are in the early stages. You could also offer your services to old people homes for fees. Or for private patients who can afford to pay. You can also give introductory lectures in libraries, if they have the space, where you could talk to people about Alzheimer and Dementia as you do in your blog in order to get yourself be known and get customers. Once you have started or even before you could ask for a government’s grant to help your enterprise to take off. Eventually If you get it you could hire some people to help you out. This is my approach I believe that if you can work for yourself it’s much better, more satisfying and creative than working for others or to keep knocking at doors that are shut.
As for publishing a book unless you are well known in the field your chances of finding a publisher are slim. But luckily today you can self publish your books in e-book format with amazon or in paper format still with amazon and it will not cost anything because in the latter case you can order one copy only or a thousand copies. Besides for each copy that you sell you will receive 70% royalties instead of the 10 to 15% from a commercial publisher. If on the other hand you decide to give it free you can do it for 90 days in which case amazon will give you a good promotion but still pay you a sum at the end of the free sale period. If you get such promotion chances are that you will be noticed by publishers interested in the field..
I’m surprised that in Denmark there is no much promotion for Alzheimer or Dementia because they are very important medical issues of our age so much so that unless they are not addresses they will cripple the National Health that of a country and they will.
The bright side though is that Alzheimer and Dementia indeed any problems with the aged is an enormous as well as a potentially lucrative field for anybody wanting to start something on their own.

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