Elder Care, Personified

My father, who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1996 at age 77, lived the last year of his life in an Alzheimer’s unit in a Spokane-area nursing home. The facility’s excellent staffers, including my sister, a nurse who oversaw the unit, were trying new ideas to preserve the dignity of its residents. But some scenes still haunt me 16 years later. The woman who squawked “help me-help-me-help-me” hour after hour. The sobbing in some rooms. The aimless wandering through the corridors by residents, dressed in mismatched clothes. I’ve heard and read how care facilities in the Inland Northwest – and throughout the country – have improved greatly in the past decade. The philosophy of meeting Alzheimer’s residents where they live in their reality – rather than forcing our reality upon them – preserves dignity and eases some of the worst symptoms of dementia. After my dad died, I vowed to return to his care unit and visit some of the women and men I came to know there. I never did/ Rebecca Nappi , End Notes. More here. (Courtesy photo: Dwayne Clark, right, and Marc Novak of Aegis Living, an assisted living residential company)

Question: Have you dealt with a family member suffering from Alzheimer’s?