Dementia: From The Heart by Norman Macnamara
Today is World Dementia Awareness Day and I would ask you to view the very moving video above by Norman MacNamara in which he raises awareness that there is a PERSON attached to the diagnosis of dementia – a PERSON who lives and breathes and so very much understands, who is hurt and affected by the stigma that his diagnosis brings as much as by the daily torment of the disease itself.
Please also read this moving account of living with Frontotemporal Dementia by Dr Bob Fay in which he details the difficult journey in obtaining a diagnosis and the effect of the disease on himself and his family.
Further information re dementia can be found atWorld Alzheimer Report 2012: Removing the Stigma of Dementia (pdf) and help is available at the Alzheimer's Society
Further information re dementia can be found atWorld Alzheimer Report 2012: Removing the Stigma of Dementia (pdf) and help is available at the Alzheimer's Society
Please remember there is a PERSON attached to the diagnosis.
With thanks to Dr Justin Marley at The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog for making me aware of Norman
Anna :o]
8 comments:
it's good to raise awareness for this illness and that there is a person behind...thanks anna
Thanks for this. I had no idea it was World Dementia Day. My aged father has just been given a diagnosis of vascular dementia but for people like Dr Bob in the video, to receive the diagnosis at such a young age must be devastating.
Dementia is something we all tend to ignore until it affects us. Fear does terrible things! Early onset dementia, in whatever form, is a dreadful diagnosis.As Norman said, the worst thing about dementia is knowing you have it. My mother-in-law is lost, old, aggressive, frightened - I hope she reaches a point where she can be calm. It doesn't seem likely at present - and the NHS seems to regard dementia in the elderly in a very different light to a young person with a broken leg. Surely a broken mind is just as painful?
Dementia is something we all tend to ignore until it affects us. Fear does terrible things! Early onset dementia, in whatever form, is a dreadful diagnosis.As Norman said, the worst thing about dementia is knowing you have it. My mother-in-law is lost, old, aggressive, frightened - I hope she reaches a point where she can be calm. It doesn't seem likely at present - and the NHS seems to regard dementia in the elderly in a very different light to a young person with a broken leg. Surely a broken mind is just as painful?
Sorry, double posting there . . .
Thank you for your comments Claudia, Little Nell and jabblog.
I do agree that knowing you have dementia is the worst thing...and often wonder if a early diagnosis (if not sought)is unkind, indeed cruel...
Anna :o]
Hi Anna .. I've just watched the video and Norman's extremely pertinent message ... we just don't know do we how much comprehension is there, even if the irrelevant activities of life can't be achieved - tying shoelaces etc, putting a piece of cake into his mouth to eat it ..... one also wonders about other ill people - stroked etc etc ..
I never got to ask my mother - she could comprehend, even though bed ridden ... about how she felt etc - as, I believe, if she'd wanted to tell me she would have done - she was interested in some Alzheimer stories I read her, as the downstairs at the nursing centre was turned into a 'Dementia Unit' ... so she was still aware ... but her personal feelings would have induced sadness - and her stroke had deprived her of that expression - probably not the feeling, in fact I'm sure not the feeling.
Very interesting to listen to .. thanks so much for posting .. I've noted it ...
All the best Hilary
Knowing what the symptoms of dementia are and how to address them are crucial. Whether it's someone we know who's getting older or we ourselves, at some point we'll be faced with the issue of mental decline and the possibility of dementia.
Dementia specialist
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