This UK article described the widespread abuse of strong anti-psychotic drugs on elderly dementia patients, correctly framing the issue as an abuse of human rights.
That's the exact situation that happened to my Mom, Mina, under my brother's watch, during her first year in a nursing home. In six weeks, she went from singing, dancing, laughing, writing, self-grooming, feeding herself, etc., to: daily seizures, lying comatose 23 hours a day, losing her ability to walk or even swallow, and nearly dying of dehydration. After halting the Haldol, the seizures stopped, but she is now brain-damaged, in a wheelchair.
I've been rehabilitating her ever since... six years and counting...
Here's the link:
http://dprogram.net/2009/10/07/msm-scandalous-abuse-of-the-elderly-prescribed-antipsychotics-in-hospital-exposed/
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, June 23, 2008
Theory of Mina
A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing around on www.aldaily.com, and ran across Salon.com's article on how to win the New Yorker's cartoon captioning contest.
It turned out to be one of those sleeper aHA! moments...
Among other things, one of the points the author made was: the New Yorker editors love humor involving Theory of Mind. Put simply, Theory of Mind (ToM) describes imagining someone's else's point of view, especially when it's different from yours. Walking a mile in their shoes. Being empathetic is closely related, but to be empathetic, you still need to imagine life as the person you want to empathize with.
Feeling impatient with someone? Try getting into their head. Doctors dismissing patients' complaints? ToM is what they're most likely missing.
Most able people find it hard, or at least scary and off-putting, to imagine how it might be live with dementia. Not me. Well to be honest, it's still scary, but fairly easy, for me to imagine my Mom's state: her dementia experience is a long term version of what a bad migraine does to me: I can't think, I can't see clearly, I can't make sense of my thoughts, and I can't read. My motor coordination is off, things sound strange.
Come to think of it, a lot of these same conditions tend to happen to users of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin - but that's another story...
I had not heard of ToM before the Salon article - but since then, I notice it everywhere, online, in advertising... it can make it much easier to understand and sympathize with people who do not think like ourselves.
Such a potentially powerful tool would seem like catnip - and people do seem happy to wield it when there's a benefit to be had for themselves... but not so much when empathy and sacrifice might be called for.
Mina's last crusade was for what she called "more civility" in society, a call for kinder treatment to each other. ToM seems key to that end. It's ironic, when it seems that people are increasingly socializing in like-minded cliques, thinking in more and more extreme and opposing ways.
Theory of Mind... Theory of Mina.
I can see this is what I have been doing for some time, to stay focused and engaged in my Mom's help. I imagine her early life, I google social culture in her time, imagine living in her skin, imagine what it's like to age as she did, alone for 25 years, almost totally abandoned. That's something that happens a lot to women, in this country and elsewhere.
Something worth practicing - Theory of Mind...
It turned out to be one of those sleeper aHA! moments...
Among other things, one of the points the author made was: the New Yorker editors love humor involving Theory of Mind. Put simply, Theory of Mind (ToM) describes imagining someone's else's point of view, especially when it's different from yours. Walking a mile in their shoes. Being empathetic is closely related, but to be empathetic, you still need to imagine life as the person you want to empathize with.
Feeling impatient with someone? Try getting into their head. Doctors dismissing patients' complaints? ToM is what they're most likely missing.
Most able people find it hard, or at least scary and off-putting, to imagine how it might be live with dementia. Not me. Well to be honest, it's still scary, but fairly easy, for me to imagine my Mom's state: her dementia experience is a long term version of what a bad migraine does to me: I can't think, I can't see clearly, I can't make sense of my thoughts, and I can't read. My motor coordination is off, things sound strange.
Come to think of it, a lot of these same conditions tend to happen to users of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin - but that's another story...
I had not heard of ToM before the Salon article - but since then, I notice it everywhere, online, in advertising... it can make it much easier to understand and sympathize with people who do not think like ourselves.
Such a potentially powerful tool would seem like catnip - and people do seem happy to wield it when there's a benefit to be had for themselves... but not so much when empathy and sacrifice might be called for.
Mina's last crusade was for what she called "more civility" in society, a call for kinder treatment to each other. ToM seems key to that end. It's ironic, when it seems that people are increasingly socializing in like-minded cliques, thinking in more and more extreme and opposing ways.
Theory of Mind... Theory of Mina.
I can see this is what I have been doing for some time, to stay focused and engaged in my Mom's help. I imagine her early life, I google social culture in her time, imagine living in her skin, imagine what it's like to age as she did, alone for 25 years, almost totally abandoned. That's something that happens a lot to women, in this country and elsewhere.
Something worth practicing - Theory of Mind...
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
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Sunday, March 4, 2007
Say "hello" to Wilhelmina Dole!
Hello everyone!
I'm glad you've found this little corner of the web.
This site combines a salute to my mother, Wilhelmina Dole, the issues she cared about, and creative caretaking notes.
Throughout the years, Mina worked in a beauty parlor she co-owned with her sister Mary, segue'd onto a semi-professional career singing opera in Boston and New York City (both before she got married, in 1953). After Mina married (to George Dole, in Newton, Massachusetts), she juggled motherhood and family life with a succession of volunteer causes, initially volunteering with her local church and community, later sheltering abused women (in the 1970's), and progressive causes generally, right up to 2002.
Now suffering from the effects of dementia and Parkinson's, one of Mina's latest causes was a plea for more civility in today's society. An inclusive person, to Mina this meant that people of all backgrounds should treat each other better than we have lately, especially with more respect and caring, and that we all needed to actively cultivate our improvement in these areas. As she used to tell me when I was six, "You're on your honor."
Mina has always been a very pure-hearted person, as well as a person of faith, someone who prayed daily, loved angels, and visited retired nuns in nursing homes. But she also suffered from something akin to ADD, before that sort of syndrome was very well understood, and was often punished for it, sometimes cruelly.
(We only realized she might be ADD years after realizing the same about us kids.)
Mina often had trouble reading people. An extremely trusting person, she was easy to set-up and fool or betray, and sometimes this happened to tragic ends. Her ADD undercut her effectiveness in achieving even more in life than she did - it certainly cost her a lot of respect.
With that in mind, I created this blog, to salute and carry on the kinds of causes she championed.
One thing I personally witnessed during my mother's recent illness has been the very sad state of elder care in this country. To me, and to my mother, this has been both tragic and a sin. To the extent I can, I intend to rectify that, in her honor.
In mid-2006, mom said to me, "Don't forget me." I won't, Mom. No one will. The best monument I can think of to honor her is the kind of progressive work that would make her proud. More details to come in ensuing posts.
Welcome to Mina's Place. Have a cup of Red Rose tea and take your shoes off. It's a friendly place, but it's also a focused place where we plan to get a few things done and share some ideas. :)
We're glad to see you. Relax, and keep coming back!
I'm glad you've found this little corner of the web.
This site combines a salute to my mother, Wilhelmina Dole, the issues she cared about, and creative caretaking notes.
Throughout the years, Mina worked in a beauty parlor she co-owned with her sister Mary, segue'd onto a semi-professional career singing opera in Boston and New York City (both before she got married, in 1953). After Mina married (to George Dole, in Newton, Massachusetts), she juggled motherhood and family life with a succession of volunteer causes, initially volunteering with her local church and community, later sheltering abused women (in the 1970's), and progressive causes generally, right up to 2002.
Now suffering from the effects of dementia and Parkinson's, one of Mina's latest causes was a plea for more civility in today's society. An inclusive person, to Mina this meant that people of all backgrounds should treat each other better than we have lately, especially with more respect and caring, and that we all needed to actively cultivate our improvement in these areas. As she used to tell me when I was six, "You're on your honor."
Mina has always been a very pure-hearted person, as well as a person of faith, someone who prayed daily, loved angels, and visited retired nuns in nursing homes. But she also suffered from something akin to ADD, before that sort of syndrome was very well understood, and was often punished for it, sometimes cruelly.
(We only realized she might be ADD years after realizing the same about us kids.)
Mina often had trouble reading people. An extremely trusting person, she was easy to set-up and fool or betray, and sometimes this happened to tragic ends. Her ADD undercut her effectiveness in achieving even more in life than she did - it certainly cost her a lot of respect.
With that in mind, I created this blog, to salute and carry on the kinds of causes she championed.
One thing I personally witnessed during my mother's recent illness has been the very sad state of elder care in this country. To me, and to my mother, this has been both tragic and a sin. To the extent I can, I intend to rectify that, in her honor.
In mid-2006, mom said to me, "Don't forget me." I won't, Mom. No one will. The best monument I can think of to honor her is the kind of progressive work that would make her proud. More details to come in ensuing posts.
Welcome to Mina's Place. Have a cup of Red Rose tea and take your shoes off. It's a friendly place, but it's also a focused place where we plan to get a few things done and share some ideas. :)
We're glad to see you. Relax, and keep coming back!
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