Learning from Alzheimer’s Patients

When we can learn from Alzheimer’s patients/victims what it’s like to live with the disease…what they encounter, what frustrates them, what annoys them, what pleases them, how we can best interact with them…we’ll know much better how to care for them. 

I so often tried to discover what it was like inside Mother’s mind and thus understand what she was facing…where she was (what era) that day, who she thought I was, what she liked and disliked.  If we could have talked about her disease while she was able to communicate verbally, it would have helped us both.  But I didn’t know to ask her at that time and she didn’t know to tell me.

I did try to learn as much as I could about Alzheimer’s and found one book, Living in the Labyrinth, written by an Alzheimer’s victim, available at that time very helpful. 

Liz’s post, People With Alzheimer’s Disease Speak Out , got me thinking again about the

 necessity of caregivers learning from the patients, whether the caregivers are professionals or family members.