Multimedia Reflection
I’ll Be There (film), “A Bus to Nowhere” Radiolab, and “Rainy Days and Mondys” This American Life
This morning demonstrated many positive coping methods families can use when facing some of the challenges living with dementia can present. The most powerful of these appeared to be music. Watching Glen Campbell’s dementia progress over several years during his farewell tour, I was stunned by how preserved his musical talents were. With each performance, I nervously watched, wondering whether he could pull it off. Yet somehow, he was always able to correctly greet the city he was in, strum his guitar, and although prompted with the words, sing the songs almost effortlessly. His wife stated at the end that she thought some people questioned whether the farewell tour was the right thing to do. At the beginning of the film, I honestly couldn’t believe they were going to put him and themselves through it. However, his family had a much more positive outlook than I did. His son talked about celebrating his life while he was still with him. I thought that was a pretty amazing way to approach this disease. Music seemed to be the key to coping with Glen Campbell’s disease. Despite the hard times, it seemed to bring his family together.
After viewing this film, I thought back to Still Alice, the story of a brilliant linguistics professor who lost her memory and the ability to find words. Contrasting these two stories, it shows that music really is stored differently in the brain. Despite the fact that I would argue each person was an “expert” in their field, spending much time throughout their life with work, Alice was unable to preserve her talent the way Glen did (unless it was just the way the films depicted each person). While I was unable to view Alive Inside, I was able to think back to an experience I had at Maple Knoll last year. During our family medicine clerkship, we toured the facility including the 3rd floor memory unit. I remember they were playing an old-timey tune on the radio, and watching the patients light up. They were tapping their feet and bobbing their heads; it was really a sight to see. Music can be such a powerful tool, as demonstrated by Glen Campbell’s story. However, not everyone has had such a strong tie to music in their life, so I enjoyed hearing about ways other families coped with dementia.
“Rainy Days and Mondys” was a nice demonstration of “entering into the patient’s world,” which I have heard a lot about this month. I internally struggled with this somewhat, finding this to be basically lying, and I’m sure a lot of families struggle with this too. However, hearing about how Mondy’s relationship with Karen’s mother developed as he did this, it hardly seems harmful. Trying to constantly reorient a person day after day sounds incredibly frustrating. How much more enjoyable time spent together might be learning what is going on in someone’s mind rather than arguing to change it. This might be hard for some families to do, but for those who go with this approach, it could really be life-changing. I couldn’t help but laugh when they were talking about the monkeys in North Carolina. It didn’t seem to confuse her further when Mondy agreed, but rather made it fun for both of them.
The nursing home in Dusseldorf revealed another way in which people can enter into the world of dementia. The example of the bus stop was not only clever, but it appears to have been a solution to a safety issue. Instead of having patients wander to far reaches to find whatever they might be looking for, a bus stop is the perfect place for anyone to get where they might be going. The common denominator in all these approaches to dementia is that they benefit the individuals. Whether it be music for Glen, monkeys for Karen’s mom or a bus stop for the woman who needed to “go home,” learning to let go of one’s own reality to enter another’s can stand to benefit everyone involved. I’ve seen at the GEC over the past few weeks that the solution for each family is as unique as the patient, and gathering information from these examples and the patients I’ve met this month can hopefully help me to guide patients and families in finding these solutions in future practice.