Seeing and living with dementia

Finuala Dowling has written poems about her mother’s mental illness. Using poetry Finuala conveys what it is like to see and live with her mother’s mind being altered by dementia.

Mental illness is often understood in more objective scientific terms as a disorder of the brain. Poetry is much more subjective. Finuala uses poetry to understand and help others to relate to her as a daughter watching her mother’s dementia unfold and her mother’s experiences of dementia. Watch Finuala introduce and read six short poems that are taken from her anthology ‘Notes from the Dementia Ward’. The poems give us some real insight into what it’s like to experience mental illness.