It’s impossible to pinpoint the moment my father began to suffer from dementia. Nobody in the family questioned any momentary lapses of memory from time to time and even when these became more frequent I don’t think any of us really understood the significance of what was happening. Certainly, that word dementia was far from our thoughts at that stage. When dad retired he and mum had gone to live in a small Fermanagh village close to where dad had …
For most people, the thought of a dementia diagnosis and the fear of losing their ability to recall treasured memories is devastating. Our research which used an iPad to help people living with dementia to reminisce showed how powerful memories can be and how important it is for people living with dementia to focus on the memories that they still have, rather than thinking about what is lost. Dementia is now a major public health concern with estimated annual costs …
I described previously the problem of the ‘Pathology of Leadership’ (here), with a further post mainly devoted to dementia in our leaders (here). It’s not just political leaders who have health problems. I mentioned Ferdinand Sauerbruch in the second post. It’s difficult now to overemphasise just how renowned a surgeon he was in the inter-war period. From very modest origins, he rose to be the top surgeon in the top hospital, the Charité in Berlin, in Germany. He was deservedly internationally famous …
