It takes a community

When my dad was diagnosed with younger onset dementia he was too young to fit in the aged care system, yet his illness was classified as an ageing disease, not a disability so he didn’t fit in that box either.

This lack of fit is something that everyday folks experience every, single day. For carers it means that we need to scale up our skills in negotiation, creative thinking and general demanding very, very quickly.

Despite my career which largely involved navigating systems, in this time I learned that sometimes there is no right nor wrong, there is just a choice of best available option.

I cannot even begin to describe to you how much the ‘best available option’ hurts when you are the bearer of such news.

In this time I truly experienced the fact that systems can really suck, particularly when viewed through a single silo or lens.

Throughout my career I’ve had the privilege to work in the corporate world, in government land, and in the not for profit sector. Something that never ceases to amaze me is the sheer lack of connection between these sectors. If I was an artist I’d be tempted to draw four discrete silos (community, business, not for profit and government), each blowing their own share of smoke, but separate disjointed, no logical connection.