Alzheimer's Patients Turn To Stories Instead Of Memories

Publiquei no Facebook, no mural do Projeto Memória :

Excelente artigo que merece ser partilhado junto de quem convive com pacientes de Alzheimer!

Ask family members of someone with Alzheimer's or another dementia: Trying to talk with a loved one who doesn't even remember exactly who they are can be very frustrating.

But here at a senior center in Seattle, things are different.

The idea is to show photos to people with memory loss, and get them to imagine what's going on — not to try to remember anything, but to make up a story.

Storytelling is one of the most ancient forms of communication — it's how we learn about the world. It turns out that for people with dementia, storytelling can be therapeutic. It gives people who don't communicate well a chance to communicate. And you don't need any training to run a session.

Many of the people in this group don't talk much on their own. But they're enthusiastic about making up a life story for the water-skier — he's a retired guy who's been divorced several times. He's got four children and a wife onshore, waiting to be taken out to dinner.

"People with dementia start to forget their social role; they might not remember they're a spouse ... a parent," says Basting. "They need a social role through which they can express who they are, and the role of storyteller really supplies that."

One study co-authored by Basting in The Gerontologist, a journal, found that storytelling made people more engaged and alert, and that staff members at residential facilities had more positive views of their patients. An independent study published inNursing Research showed participants were happier and better able to communicate in general.

Basting tells of one man who came to her in tears of thanks. For the past three years, he had been driving his wife crazy, trying to get her to talk about shared memories. He tried her on storytelling so they could talk about the story and play with the plot line. And eventually, he was able to communicate with her again.

Leia o artigo clicando aqui .

Abraços saudáveis