Neuro Note #5: Dementia

    I listened to Beth Malone's TED talk titled "How my dad's dementia changed my idea of death (and life)". In this TED talk Beth discusses the mental challenges she endured while her father was dealing with frontotemporal lobe dementia. She talks about how hard it was to watch him be trapped in a body that took away his ability to interact with the world the way that he wants to and should be able to. She described it as him being tortured in that body and wanting to get him out of it. Essentially she wanted to kill her dad to free him from the disease. Beth talks about how death no longer seemed like the worst fate and she wished they had talked more about each other's "best death" when the whole family was still healthy. At the end of her TED talk she discusses her realization that she is his daughter, she is not his doctor and therefore the big decisions should not fall on her; her only role should be to be his daughter.

   I chose to do my assignment on this TED talk because the concept was intriguing to me. We live in a society that assumes life is always better than death and we do everything in our power to preserve life. However, this TED talk raises the concern of quality of life versus life. I think this TED talk brings up a really important conversation that people should have about what kind of care they want to receive in situations like this. As Beth mentions, no one wants to have the "death" conversation while everyone is healthy, but knowing how a loved one feels about this topic will help others not feel guilty or confused when decisions need to be made. As a future OT I think it is important to try to help clients and their families open up about these kinds of conversations while the client is still healthy enough to convey his or her opinions and preferences so that everyone can feel confident when making decisions in the future. It is certainly not an easy conversation to have, but it is an important one. I also think it is important to see how much pressure Beth felt to "save" her dad, even though she was his daughter and therefore that kind of responsibility should not have fallen on her. This is somewhere that OTs can help with the family and helping them realize that there is a team of physicians and healthcare professionals that can help guide them in the process. I would recommend other's to listen to this TED talk to better understand the challenges that loved ones of the client might be facing to help them become more aware of how to assist the client and their family. 

Malone, B. (2017). Transcript of "How my dad's dementia changed my idea of death (and life)". TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/beth_malone_how_my_dad_s_dementia_changed_my_idea_of_death_and_life/transcript.