Awkward Story: A Dementia Podcast

TED Talk featuring Dr Anne Basting

5/30/2020

Please watch MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Dr Anne Basting speak on connecting with individuals living with dementia.

1 Comment

Sally Dodd

6/2/2020 10:33:47 pm

Thank you for sharing this conversation.
My mother, who is a self-taught oil painter and a bookkeeper, has never failed to impress me with her versatility of talent. Three years after her diagnosis, my mother was left confused, mad, utterly frustrated, and depressed. Her talents had been locked behind a door that she had lost the key to. She shut down.
I tried for over a year to find a way to help her find that key, but to no avail. I reached out to dementia experts for their advice and opinions of how to engage with my mom with hopeful outcome. But all I received were things like "Do crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, play games" or "Have her do busy work; fold laundry, clip coupons,..". These were options for early onset, but my mom was in 'the gap' that was to become what I thought was the 'eternal void'. What I came to realize after much trial and error was her expression of creativity was all in the way I asked questions and stopped just wanting her 'to do'. She could still access her talent, just in a new way. There was a generation and shift of creativity, she just presented it differently. As she progresses, there is still an underlying understanding between us that gives us both happiness.
After the lock down is over, I hope the door has remained open and my mom and I can still share through sheer expression.

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Awkward Story is a Dementia Education Podcast and Blog focused on supporting individuals touched by dementia related diagnoses. We wish to address the stigma and isolation often beset upon patients and their families by bringing their poignant, tragic, beautiful, awkward stories into the open. We will speak to insightful professionals that regularly assist individuals in their fight against dementia. We will also share our own insight as Clinical Social Workers.

TED Talk featuring Dr Anne Basting

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