My young grandson Jake was helping Chris play a game. Jake looked up at me and said, “Granddad’s mind is in “Never, Never Land.”
Having just watched “Peter Pan” with Jake, it seemed a very appropriate analogy. For the ten years since Chris’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Chris and I have been on a journey together backwards to “Never, Never Land”; with my helping Chris fight off the pirates and the occasional crocodile.
With my nursing background, I have been blessed with the ability to keep Chris at home with me to make his journey easier. With this web site, I would like to share what I have learned in hopes to aid those that face this same journey.
One of the tools I have found most useful is Dr. Barry Reisberg’s research. Reisberg, a neurologist at the New York University, found that Alzheimer disease unravels the brain in almost the reverse order as it develops from birth. He calls this retro-genesis, back to birth. Putting a developmental age to Reisberg’s stages for assessment of Alzheimer’s has helped me to understand where Chris’s mind has journeyed. Knowing where Chris’s mind has taken him, has allowed me to meet not only his physical needs but his emotional needs as well.
I truly believe with knowledge comes understanding; with understanding comes compassion. It is through this compassion that we find acceptance. Until we accept where our love ones truly are, in mind and body, we will not be able understand their language. As their words become broken and eventually non-existent, they are communicating their needs and frustration through their behavior.
To understand the Language of Alzheimer’s we as caregivers must journey to “Never, Never Land, putting ourselves in their world.