Disability in the evening of life
Dr. Ali Khwaja
Alzheimer’s Disease, and other forms of dementia,
can be very debilitating. Starting from a simple loss
of short term memory, the disease progresses over the
years until the person becomes incontinent, immobile
and unable to relate to the outside world. Besides, the
helplessness of the patient, the agony of the family
members and care-givers is beyond description. With life
expectancy increasing rapidly, more people are likely
to be hit by Alzheimer’s.
In the course of her five-year struggle
with her father’s
illness, Dipannita Bose, a devoted daughter learnt to
cope with and accept the illness and the changes it brought
in her father’s personality. Here’s a short
interview that I had with her:
When did you first come to know about
Alzheimer’s
and what was your reaction?
In 1994 when my father went to the US,
my sister felt he was disoriented and forgetting things.
My family doctor
told us about a disease called Alzheimer’s which
President Regan also had. I felt it must be just “old
age”.
Your father was a very active person. How did you learn
to accept his disability?
Counselling helped me a lot - to accept the fact that
this was reality, and that it would not improve, but
would rather go from bad to worse. I also did a lot of
reading on the subject.
What is your advice to those who are caregivers of the
disabled of any sort?
Support for caregivers is very important. Caregivers
should not forget themselves or hesitate to seek support,
not just for the person in question, but also for themselves.
Communication with professionals, friends, and like-minded
groups also plays an important role. Acceptance of the
disability channelises us to make something positive
out of the situation.
Now that he is no more, how do you look back upon yours
years of caregiving?
It was a learning experience. It has changed me and
I have found a purpose in life - of reaching out to other
families in similar situations. I feel it is a bigger
goal, not restricted to my own family.
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