You may be surprised how often I’m approached with requests to use the Scheme’s Butterfly symbol on all sorts of dementia-related projects and items; you may or may not be surprised to hear that I almost refuse the request. Sometimes, I discover that someone has gone ahead without seeking permission and I always have to take action to put an end to that. Why?
The reason the Butterfly symbol is copyrighted is that it only means “I request the Butterfly Scheme care approach” – and in order for that care to be delivered, healthcare teams need to have been given insight, skills and a methodology that all have to be taught and maintained. Obviously, there are other symbols about which mean “Dementia”; that’s different altogether, because there you’re making an assumption that if whoever you’re alerting approaches that person, they know how to care appropriately for them – and that may sometimes be the case, but very often it may not be, particularly out in the wider world.
Family carers are, in fact, the most likely to believe that placing a symbol alongside a patient will automatically improve their care – and that’s because they themselves have picked up insights and skills along the way and now believe that what you need to do to care appropriately is self-evident … but if that insight and those skills aren’t taught, they ‘re unlikely to just come automatically. When someone doesn’t understand dementia or has had negative experiences of trying to care for people living with dementia, their response to such a symbol could very easily be negative – the very opposite of improving care.
If the Butterfly Scheme’s symbol is referred to as an “identifier”, I’m immediately on the alert – because what it identifies is a request for a specific care approach, but not simply dementia itself. In fact, within the Scheme we have two allied symbols, because sometimes the care approach can be helpful to people without a dementia diagnosis; our mission is to deliver appropriate care, but in doing so we can’t risk a symbol appearing which might mislead others into thinking there’s been a dementia diagnosis.
The Scheme’s symbol was chosen many years ago by a focus group of people living in the early stages of dementia. They chose it because the butterfly flits – like the memory may flit – and people actually admire the butterfly for its flitting; they wanted to be admired for who they were, too. It certainly is an attractive symbol – but it’s not used to make things pretty; it has a very serious function.
As always, I thank all healthcare teams responding so positively and supportively to the Scheme’s symbol; your insight and teamwork are hugely appreciated.