- This topic has 20 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Just watched the programme on BBC2 about Terry Pratchett and his diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease.
Having Alzeimer’s or having someone you love have Alzeimer’s is my worst nightmare. This television programme was very sobering, but also positive in its exploration of the progress of research into the disease.
It was very well done – moving but not maudlin.
I didn’t realise Pratchett was such a geek – six, yes six, screens attached to one computer !amazed
I love the Discworld series, it seems unfair that someone so talented should be struck down with a disease that affects the very tools he needs to be creative. The programme was moving as TC says, I was especially saddened when he stumbled over reading Nation at the convention. Shades of things to come…
[quote1233869926=Billy Rubin]
I was especially saddened when he stumbled over reading Nation at the convention. Shades of things to come…
[/quote1233869926]
This was the most moving point for me – especially as Pratchett dealt with his stumble with such dignity.The second episode was as hard to watch as the first, especially when they visited the American ‘Nursing’ home for Alzheimer’s sufferers. OMG. 🙁
Was it ‘Nursing’ or ‘Warehousing’ ?
The thought of ‘Graduating’ through the levels was chilling – I can understand the reaction of Pratchett’s PA :((
My guess is that was an up market high cost establishment, one wonders how the poor NHS copes (or doesn’t cope) with such people. I don’t think I want to think about that actually…
I used to know a consultant psychiatrist working in the NHS and the private sector – he died of bowel cancer seven years ago. His (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) solution to the increasing numbers of dementia patients was literally ‘warehousing’. He proposed that:
-
Patients should be keep in a warm comfortable environment with soft music and images of the past constantly washing over them
-
Patients should be sedated to avoid distress
-
Patients should be tube-fed to ensure adequate nutrition and hydration
-
At regular intervals through the day, the patients’ ‘beds’ should be passed through a ‘car wash’ facility with moisturisers instead of car wax and they should be gently blown dry
-
The patients’ environment would be warm enough that they could be naked to facilitate hygiene and minimise the effects of incontinence.
-
When relatives visited, the patients would be moved out of the warehousing facility, dressed, and placed in normal hospital beds. After the visit they would be returned to their warehousing facility for longer term storage
And this is what happens when the inmates take over the asylum :((
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.