Current PhD Candidate at the new Adelaide University (previously the University of South Australia), School of Social Work and Social Care, investigating human rights in policy, systems, and clinical, health and social care practices for people with dementia and older people receiving community, respite or residential care, and for dementia to be viewed and supported as a condition causing disabilities. Prevoius education includes a MSc Dementia Care; Bachelor of Psychology, Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing and Communication); Graduate Diploma of Grief & Loss; Retired business owner and chef; Retired nurse; Honorary Associate Fellow with the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong. My first book on dementia, "What The Hell Happened to My Brain?: Living Beyond Dementia" authored in 2016, and my second dementia book "Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another dementia", was co-authored with Associate Professor Lee-Fay Low in 2016. My first two volumes of poetry were published in 2012 and 2016. I have publishd many other articles and occasionally write for aged care and/or dementia online journals and magazines. I've been actively working with a major focus on human rights and access to the CRPD for people with dementia, and for dementia to be viewed and managed as a disability, and have given more than 1000 invited key note presentations. Topics include dementia, rehabilitation, human rights, dementia as a disability, discrimination, stigma, economic stigma, the lived experience of dementia, dementia-enabling design principles, language, Inclusive Communities, Prescribed Disengagement®, Models of care and post diagnostic pathways, Information Technology, Advocacy and Activism, dementia policy (local, national and global) and loss and grief. I no longer have any political affiliations.