Dementia The Movie
That title may seem a bit unnerving for some people but hear me out.
Some years ago, my late mother-in-law was suffering from dementia, and my wife attended a lecture at the home her mother was being cared for. This lecture was for the benefit of the patient’s relatives.
Before the lecture began, a short film was screened.
The film featured a young woman in a bright summer dress. The style of the dress was around that of the 1950s. The woman was in her early twenties.
The film showed scenes of her running, laughing from her home, and being pursued by a man calling her back. Further scenes showed her running freely across a road. Then escorted to a police station and driven back to her home in a police car with her husband. All the time she is laughing and happy.
The final scene showed her sitting in her bedroom, still in her summer frock. She looks up into a mirror.
The camera lets you see the image she now sees. It is not of a young woman in a summer frock, but that of an old, confused elderly lady in her nightdress.
When this harrowing film ended, the lecturer explained to the rather stunned audience that this is how some dementia sufferers often see themselves. Not as frail elderly people, but as the young and lively person they once were. They live in the past.
The film was made to help those with relatives suffering from dementia, understand the problems.
I wish I had seen it.
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