Neuro Note #1 - Alzheimer's Dementia

 

    In order to enhance my learning in my Neuro Aspects of Occupational Therapy course, I decided to read an article written by Carol Bradley Bursack titled, “Should You Play Along with Dementia Patients’ Realities?”. She wrote about her experiences caring for her dad with Alzheimer’s Dementia. She mentioned he would wait endlessly (she waited it out to be sure) for his medical degree from the University of Minnesota which would never come because he didn’t get to finish his studies. While he was in school, he took a break to pursue archaeology and while he was working on that he was drafted into World War II. There he suffered a closed head injury as a result from collapsing of heat exhaustion and hitting his head on the hard earth floor of the Mojave Desert. Over time, fluid began to build up behind the scar tissue in his brain which required him to get surgery to drain it. The surgery backfired and caused him to enter a severe stage of dementia.

    When her dad expected a degree or acknowledgement to come in the mail, Carol took it upon herself to create documents that seemed like the real thing to go along with his perceived reality. When he had delusions of war going on around them, she would play along with the idea by saying “we are in a safe zone” after the tactic of trying to convince him that there was no war at all didn’t work. She didn’t play into every delusion but if they were harmless to him and others, she thought to herself “why should I make his life miserable by continually telling him he is wrong? Going with the flow is not hurting anyone else and it makes his life with Dementia a little more bearable”. She found out later on after being scolded by a psychiatrist that her tactic was actually supported by a theory called validation therapy.

    I chose this resource to further my learning about Dementia because I was curious to know if it is considered acceptable to “go along with” the realities of people with dementia and how that can be beneficial or harmful to them. I agree with Carol and the theory of validation therapy that this can make the patient’s and their caregivers’ lives easier by validating them even if they are wrong if it doesn’t pose a threat to anyone. This ties into what we’ve learned about Occupational Therapy’s role in clients with Alzheimer’s Dementia because it can increase their quality of life by not making them feel disregarded all the time. I would recommend this article for others’ learning experiences because it introduces a different viewpoint and understanding of people with dementia and the roles of their caregivers.

References

Bursack, Carol, B. (2023). Should you play along with dementia patients’ realities? Aging Care. https://www.agingcare.com/articles/playing-along-with-dementia-realities-121365.htm