Robbie Williams recently learned that his mother is batting dementia (Image: Getty)
won’t ever “be fully prepared” for the moment his mother no longer recognises him according to an expert on the subject. .
The 50-year-old made the revelation while promoting his forthcoming biopic Better Man. Speaking to Hello! Magazine, he admitted: “My mum’s currently got dementia – like my nan in the film – and my dad’s got Parkinsons and can’t get out of bed. So I’m in a different part of my life right now.”
There are many forms of dementia but overall it involves the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.
It affects many people with more than 944,000 people in the UK suffering from the condition. However their family suffer too as they watch their lived one deteriorate.
Robbie is currently in a very busy professional phase in his life with the imminent release fo his film and an upcoming tour. He is also a father of four children aged from 12 down to four who will no doubt want to understand what is happening with their grandmother.
asked Angelo Makri the Senior Knowledge Officer for Well Being with the Alzheimer’s Society what Robbie could expect in the coming weeks, months and years and how he can best deal with it.
Alongside offering advice on coping he admitted: “I don’t think you can ever be fully prepared for your parents forget your name, or to forget that they’re your parent. I don’t think there’s anything you can do that will really prepare yourself.”
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Robbie Williams with his mother Janet in 1998 (Image: Getty)
Reflecting on where Robbie goes from here Angelo advises he needs to process the diagnosis before he thinks about anything else. “I suppose the first thing to do – what I would say to anyone if they phoned me and said ‘my parents just been given this diagnosis’, I would always say, take time to actually process that.
“Gain as much knowledge as you can, as much information as you can, and really just try and take things one one day at a time, one step at a time, because the type of care that someone is going to need may well vary day to day. People’s capacity can fluctuate. People’s symptoms can fluctuate. So it can be very difficult.
“A diagnosis like this there’s always going to be a massive adjustment. So depending on the types of symptoms someone’s having, and depending on what specifically they are having difficulty with, that will then determine what the next step is.
“So whether the carers need to be involved at this stage or whether it’s more a case of looking at day centers or looking at technology in the home that can help. It really does depend on the person with dementia and what symptoms they’re having, because people will have different symptoms.”
In terms of explaining what is happening to his children Angleo says there isn’t a one size fits all solution. “In the same way as how you would care for a person with dementia will be different for each individual, similarly talking to children will be different depending on their ages, depending on their level of maturity.
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Robbie Williams has a very busy professional schedule at the moment (Image: Getty)
“Generally though we would say let the children know there’s no right or wrong way to feel. Explain what’s happening depending on the age and maturity of the children. You might use the word dementia, or you might not. You might say memory problems. You might say that the person is not very well.
“Explain the types of things that might be happening. It can be helpful to anchor what’s happening with something a child might have noticed. So you if you say, ‘you know granny or grandad remember they forgot your name the other day, that’s because of this condition that they have’. But it’s always good to encourage children to ask questions and acknowledge what’s happening. Acknowledge that it might be a bit strange, or things are different now, or the person might do or say things that are different to what they would normally say.
“One of the key things as well with children is going to be emotional support and letting them know that anytime they’ve got any questions, any time they want to talk, you’re there for them, and you know, you will do your best to kind of ask questions for slightly older children.”
Reflecting on what Robbie can do to ensure he isn’t spread to thinly Angelo advises: “I think one of the things that can help is being around other people, so support groups. So there’s that kind of element of being around peers who are going through similar things.”
Angelo Makri is the Senior Knowledge Officer for Well Being with the Alzheimer’s Society. You can find more information and advice on their .