It is an excellent article. I think the book will be fascinating also! Thanks!
Excellent article. Thanks. I will show this to the folks at my parents' independent living facility whoare now shunning my mom because she has dementia.
DShlian, thank you for your comment. Shunning happens so often and is a common complaint, especially from caregivers of dementia victims. There seems to be an acceptance and compassion for victims of other diseases, but because dementia affects the mind, which in turn affects the body, most people shun from lack of knowledge and not knowing how to cope with someone who thinks and acts differently than is expected from "normal" people. It embarrasses and frightens a person when confronted with a dementia patient. That's why education is so very important.
I was caregiver to my "just turned 66 year-old" husband who passed away in September 2009, from vascular dementia. It was heartbreaking to see people shy away from him, many times with fear evident in their voice and on their countenance. I'm not sure whether I felt worse for them or for my husband...I think it was for them because my husband had already lost the ability to understand or care whether he was accepted.
Good luck with your endeavors to help others understand your Mom's disease. God bless her, you, and your entire family as you go down the harrowing path of dementia.
If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to send me a personal message.
Julie
It is amazing how others think they might "catch it".
You might do like I did. I went to the little ladies who seemed to be her friend, then did not include her. I told them I just needed to know why. At first they were embarrassed, then they opened up and I found they were sweethearts who just did not know how to handle the disease, like any of us do <:
They just did not know how to deal with it. One of them said, "We get tired of repeating ourself. She can't hear very well."
Another told me she could no longer play cards or dominoes or put puzzles together and that is what they did, so they quit asking her so her feelings would not be hurt which hurt her feelings.
Another said she talked all the way through the movies and that irritated them. She got where she could not concentrate on the movie so she rambled.
Still another told me she would cry over everything and that made her not know what to say to her. I can understand that, as she does that to us, also.
So maybe they just do not know what to do around her. I also think Ma Katie isolated herself more and more where she could "hide" her progression.
Good discussion!
