The Challenges of Early Stage Dementia
The American Society on Aging’s Aging Today might be published bi-monthly but that doesn’t mean I read it as often or as thoroughly as it deserves. Hence I was struck this week by an article on Early Stage Dementia that provokes more questions and challenges than answers and solutions (unfortunately this isn’t an article that is available to non-subscribers on their web-site). The point that hit me is that, as a result of improved science and medical technologies, we can diagnose dementia earlier and there are some medical interventions that reduce symptoms. What hasn’t caught up is the social, the practical, networks to assist people, their families, and caregivers with this burdensome future. The Alzheimer’s Association, the article reckons, is generally ill-equipped to offer assistance, although a few chapters are beginning support and educational programs. But not enough. The painful irony is that people with a diagnosis of early-stage dementia are far more capable that our system is capable. And what an irony that is.
Can We Create an Earthquake?
Last week I enjoyed a telephone conversation so much I felt I gained a phone friend. And it’s with the very special Lauren Volkmer of ARTZ (Artists for Alzheimer’s). In this rambling introduction to ourselves we used and then repeated various images to agree that there is something very special happening around creativity and aging and creativity and dementia; it has to be a phenomenom of earthshaking proportions. So many wonderful people are working in so many wonderful ways that have deep connections – and Lauren and I agreed we were part of this. But is it a tidal wave or an earthquake? But does it matter as long as it keeps happening?
But the tidal wave seemed to flow through this week’s newspapers here in Greensboro, North Carolina. The first was Monday in that voicebox of capitalism, The Wall Street Journal. There was an article on pyscho-oncology which piqued my interest: “A New View, After Diagnosis“. It is about making life meaningful in the face of fear, in the face of mortality. And from what I read, being creative is, for many people, part of what helps. In my book, creative living in the face of cancer is creative aging at its best.
Another whisper of making meaning is the ad for a set of lectures by James Hollis, Jungian Analyst and Author. He’ll be here at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant Friday July 17th and Saturday July 18th for Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life and What Matters Most. I haven’t found a description of these programs but I’ve already fallen in love with their titles.
The next piece that reverberates for me is in Meet the Artist in GoTriad section of The News & Record. It’s on Robert ‘Bob’ Postma and he is a living and breathing tidal wave of…creativity, creative aging, community creation, and everything of great meaning. I’ve got to meet this man!
Reality Intrudes on All of Us
There are benchmarks in time that are shared by all. Do you remember where you were were…when man walked on the moon (I date myself with that one)? In my chosen field it could be do you remember where you were when Ronald Reagan wrote the nation of his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Diease?
Now last week’s paper brought an echo of that in the sudden retirement of Chief Judge Karen Williams of t U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. At 57 at a grand professional height, Chief Judge Williams announced that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and is leaving the bench so that her legal decisions cannot be questioned. It is an honorable action for her to take professionally; it is a brave thing to do it in public. She was the first female chief judge on the Fourth Circuit and her career has broken many ceilings but this, this public acknowledgement of a private and person matter, is yet another glass ceiling. Thank you, Madam Chief Judge, for reminding us all that a diagnosis is just a diagnosis. Alzheimer’s Disease is a heartbreaking diagnosis but it is not greater than the person themselves. And you are one class act.
Summer Blockbusters, Creative Aging style
I’m not a fan of most blockbuster movies but somehow summer and movies are inexorably linked in my mind. Beach books too (but I’ll save that for another post!). And so movies were already on my mind when recently several caught my attention.
The first was a few weeks ago in the Washington, D.C. area as I came across the American Film Insitute’s festival, SilverDocs. Three movies were singled out as being particularly worthy of attention in reviews and all three were about the experience of aging! How lucky can we be. As one review was titled : Close-up On the Elderly.
The next reminder about movies and aging in a e-mail when someone I know admitted seeing Away From Her over the weekend. Entertainment can simply be that, entertaining but it is special when entertainment can teach as well as amuse or titillate. Away From Her is just such.
Another recent tap was in my local paper with a notice about a graduate student at a local university whose made a personal story into documentary on living with Alzheimer’s Disease and front lobal dementia. Dear Dad I haven’t been able to see but it is gaining local (and or regional) acclaim. Let’s hope it gets shown nearby, and soon!
A synergistic moment
I know I may pay a bit more attention to Alzheimer’s and dementia than most people but it seems the world may be catching up with me! If the world is defined as central North Carolina, any way. It isn’t just that some recent events in town have spotlighted the perspective of people with dementia (through some of the events in the Center for Creative Aging – North Carolina‘s own Create & Celebrate) but then the local powerhouse research university, UNCG, has announced a conference for later this summer: Living Well with Memory Loss: Finding the Balance. If this isn’t enough to think that dementia is finally getting its due then consider the world of fiction. Not one but two books tackle this difficult subject: Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Samantha Harvey‘s The Wilderness. I rave about Still Alice every chance I get and now I’m eagerly awaiting my experience with Jake, the main character in Harvey’s novel. A recent book review in Books & Culture alerted me to Harvey’s book (thank you David Brooks for introducing me to them through your column!).
Opportunity Extraordinaire
Once in a while an opportunity come around that appears it might refresh the spirit and inspire the heart as well as educate the mind. For me this is The MetLife Foundation Creativity Matters: A Health and Wellness Symposium, Creating Programs for People with Dementia and Their Caregivers. And after a great deal of thought and a bit of last minute planning I’ll be there, for most of it.
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