Dementia books aiming to help children understand the condition

Agony aunt Virginia Ironside has produced two books that she hopes will help children understand their grandparent's dementia.

Writing in the Daily Express, Ms Ironside says that many parents worry about how to explain dementia to their children, with some even restricting visits to grandparents with the disease for fear of youngsters being upset.

However, Ms Ironside insists that children are more resilient than that, and they should know about the condition and be helped to understand it.

"Care homes can be strange places for children to visit but they are nothing to what they can imagine if they aren't allowed to go," she writes.

With an aging population, Ms Ironside concludes, it is even more important that we develop ways to help children understand what is going on with their older relatives.

The books are being distributed for free by dementia charity the Alzheimer's Society and dementia care home provider Barchester Healthcare.

Barchester operates Memory Lane Communities in its dementia care homes, recognising the unique needs of people with dementia by providing specialist facilities.

Read more about Barchester's dementia care homes.