She gives me a big smile and asks me in “Its good to see you” she says as she leads me into her lounge. We talk about the weather and her family and the coloured black and white photo of her departed husband on the wall. Edna is well dressed and amiable and we could continue our social chat all day, but Edna has dementia. Just scratching the surface of her sociable façade reveals that she has no idea what time of the year it is, what she had for breakfast and even who I am.
Dementia is as common as diabetes yet until recently was a forgotten illness with the sufferers often being described as “silly old women” or “stubborn old men”.But dementia is not just about short-term memory loss. Dementia effects memory, intelligence and personality. All three are lost such that the person becomes less able to cope with their day-to-day living and becomes slowly but surely less of the person they were. This is often just as distressing for the person and their loved ones as the memory loss. Indeed over years husband and wife can become strangers, just once in a while finding something will suddenly trigger a flicker of the one they fell in love with.
Dementia is as common as diabetes yet until recently was a forgotten illness with the sufferers often being described as “silly old women” or “stubborn old men”.But dementia is not just about short-term memory loss. Dementia effects memory, intelligence and personality. All three are lost such that the person becomes less able to cope with their day-to-day living and becomes slowly but surely less of the person they were. This is often just as distressing for the person and their loved ones as the memory loss. Indeed over years husband and wife can become strangers, just once in a while finding something will suddenly trigger a flicker of the one they fell in love with.
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