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3402studentvolunteer-blog · 4 years ago

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Final Volunteer Blog Post

The knowledge I’ve gained from this experience primarily consists of a new perspective on people with Dementia. I used to have preconceived negative connotations of them, as I often had the uncertainty that many face when interacting with people with Dementia. Through interacting with my matches, I have gained a new positive perspective that I can tell my peers to encourage them to change the way that they think about people with Dementia. Peer influence can be a highly effective means of changing an adolescent’s opinion (Albert et al., 2014), of which I hope to influence positively through telling stories about my positive experience. A more positive outlook on Dementia can allow for greater acceptance in the community, allowing for those with the disease to live more normal lives.

In a general sense, the entire Health Science program has taught me that health is an extremely broad field that is impacted by multiple variables. I have learned various biological, social, and psychological variables that can impact one’s health status, as well as have learned specific facts regarding various diseases (such as Dementia). My studies have prepared me with how to effectively analyze real time health scenarios, and how to approach various situations with an open mind and willingness to learn. I have an extremely open minded perspective as I understand the multifaceted factors of life, and have brought this into my position by being willing to listen and learn from my matches.

My opinion on Dementia has been highly impacted by this experience, as briefly mentioned above. While you can do many reviews of published literature to learn about Dementia, I feel as though you cannot truly understand it until you have first-hand experience with someone who has the condition. Through my conversations with my matches we have laughed, they have told me stories, and we have discussed various topics (both current and in the past). These individuals have so much knowledge and experience to share but are often stigmatized once somebody learns that they have Dementia. While I never saw these individuals negatively, I definitely used to feel uneasy due to a fear of unpredictability during conversations, in fear of bringing up something that they do not remember. Now, I realize that you can easily redirect the conversation and everything will end up working out in the end.

To positively impact the situation, various stakeholders can do their part. Individuals can change their perspective on those with Dementia, communities can become more Dementia-friendly (through clear and safe infrastructure, support programs, etc), students can be taught about Dementia at school in order to prepare them for older family and friends developing the condition, and the government can provide more funding for support programs and research to hopefully find a cure/effective treatment. By involving society to change their perspective on Dementia, those with symptoms are more likely to seek treatment as they do not feel ashamed for what is happening as they age (Riley et al., 2014), resulting in better outcomes for these individuals. Real change will not occur until every group in a population is involved in the solution, and with today’s aging population understanding Dementia has become increasingly important.

Through this service opportunity, I believe I have further developed my compassion, empathy, and communication skills. I have improved my compassion for others through learning more about my match’s lives, providing me with a new perspective on how I see others. Everybody has their own lived experiences and deserve to be celebrated equally, of which I understand further now that I have developed these relationships. My empathy quality has increased as well through seeing things from their perspective: they are often misunderstood and stigmatized, all for reasons beyond their control. Individuals with Dementia report higher rates of isolation due to this stigmatization (Riley et al., 2014), discouraging them from actively participating in society, making their last years of life less meaningful and enjoyable. Not only for the individual with Dementia, but I have also gained empathy for their caregivers: they are doing something completely selfless, but in the meanwhile see their loved one gradually losing their function. I cannot even imagine how hard that must be, especially if it is a family member or spouse who you have relied on and known for countless years. I have also developed my conversational skills and feel as though I can better maintain a conversation with those outside of my age bracket. Before this experience, I commonly only spoke to peers my same age, and my older family members. I did not really ever have the opportunity to talk to older individuals that began as complete strangers, so in having the opportunity I feel as though I can have more quality conversation with strangers in the future.

As somebody who has always wanted to work with kids, I feel as though my future career still aims to do so rather than working with the elderly population. Not for reasons such as not enjoying interacting with the elderly, but rather I do not think I could handle constantly seeing individuals (and their loved ones) in pain and mental anguish due to their gradual health degeneration. It would break my heart to essentially see somebody’s life fall apart, and see their partners counting down the days they have left with their loved ones. I do not have the strength to tell somebody that their brain is failing them, as I know how much it will change their entire life. It takes a very special and strong kind of person to work with the elderly, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for them.

The primary thing that has stuck on my mind for this experience has been how scared I am to get old and potentially develop Dementia. While it may sound stupid, I highly value the knowledge that I have (and will) learn and cannot imagine losing all of these memories. While I have not had my own family yet, it would be devastating to forget who my family members are and my memories with them. Individuals with Dementia face many unknowns, which makes me extremely nervous as I am the type of person who always needs to know what is going on. While I still have many years until this can potentially happen, I need to work on maintaining healthy habits in order to give myself the best chance possible at living a healthy life.

References: Albert, D., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2013). The Teenage Brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(2), 114–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412471347 Riley, R. J., Burgener, S., & Buckwalter, K. C. (2014). Anxiety and Stigma in Dementia. Nursing Clinics of North America, 49(2), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2014.02.008

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3402studentvolunteer-blog · 4 years ago

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Volunteer Blog Post 2

So far, this experience has made me feel many ways. Firstly, my experience so far has made me feel very rewarded as I know that even if it is only small, I could potentially be making a difference in my match’s life. I extremely value developing relationships with others, which is precisely what I am doing with my placement. Social interaction is crucial in every person’s life, and can have many positive impacts on a person’s health. Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened outcomes for patients with dementia (Sadigh-Eteghad et al., 2020), so it is extremely important to maintain a social connection during these tough times. Upon commencing the position, the caregiver I spoke to mentioned that my match often only speaks when spoken to, and will not carry the conversation themselves. Reality is, they often go off on tangents and tell stories that are so fascinating! The more that we chat, the more they are willing to open up, so seeing this improvement is so rewarding and makes me feel as though what I am doing is making a difference. I also feel immense empathy for my match, given how much their life has changed. COVID-19 has had immense impacts on my match’s life, as they can no longer attend group exercise sessions, socialize with others with dementia, and in person events with the Dementia society. Not only has my match’s life changed, but so has the lives of people with Dementia worldwide, given that the condition affects 50 million people worldwide (Sadigh-Eteghad et al., 2020). My match has not left the house for months as he is very high risk for experiencing negative side effects from the COVID-19 virus. People with dementia face difficulties in factors such as maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask, as well as have more extreme COVID-19 symptoms such as delirium (which is the most common symptom) (Sadigh-Eteghad et al., 2020), so oftentimes it is just easier to stay home.

One way that I am finding my involvement difficult occurs during the conversations when I remember that the individual I am talking with has Dementia. It is hard to conceptualize how exactly their brain interprets the conversation: will they remember who I am or what we talk about? How up to date are they on current events; what am I safe to bring up in conversation? Currently, the major conversation difficulties we encounter are when I ask about certain life events that they do not remember, but I quickly divert the conversation to not potentially distress them. When we talk, my brain often wanders into fears of developing dementia myself one day. One of the worst things I can imagine ever happening is losing my sense of self, which I often find lingers in my head during the conversations which slightly distresses me.

The service very clearly links with the Alzheimer’s/Dementia unit that we did during class and provides me with firsthand experience of the true complexity of the disease. You often think of a person with Dementia being overall forgetful and not knowing what’s going on, when in reality the disease is extremely diverse and affects everybody differently. We learned during class that TBI’s can reduce a person’s cognitive reserve, potentially leading to altered brain effects in later life (such as Dementia). My match suffered a TBI, which his doctors believe contributed to them developing Dementia. It was extremely interesting to see this crossover between my experience and class, and I hope to have more crossovers as my position progresses in order to enrich my knowledge of the disease.

My experience is rather different than expected, solely based off of my preconceived notions of a person with Dementia. Common stereotypes of those with Dementia are that they are completely out of touch, senile, and cannot maintain a conversation when in reality this couldn’t be farther from the truth. While they experience the world differently, it is extremely important to remember that they have lived a very full life filled with knowledge and experiences that we can learn from. I am always fascinated when I learn stories from their past, and love to hear about how their life is very different from my own. I have gained a new perspective on the actuality of Dementia, and how you can never truly understand the disease until you have firsthand experience with it. It has made me grateful for the experiences that I have had in life so far and makes me cherish every memory that I make, as I know that one day I can think back on them and remember.

Throughout my placement, I have demonstrated various strengths. Firstly, I have demonstrated my strengths in socialization through maintaining conversation by keeping the conversation going for minimum half an hour each week. While it can be difficult at times, I try to avoid long pauses by constantly thinking of new questions. While I consider myself a rather social person, I was very nervous to begin this position as I am not the best at speaking over the phone, which I have luckily surprised myself with doing well at. Another strength would be my willingness to gaining a new perspective. While it may sound minor, I have truly gained a new skill of seeing people with Dementia differently that I will continue in any future experiences that I have. Should I encounter anybody else with Dementia, I have gained a new positive perspective that I can apply when interacting with them. Lastly, one final strength I have demonstrated is reliability. I consistently call at the same time and day each week and have prioritized this position over other activities as I seek to maintain a constant schedule for my match. It may sound silly, but I have this thought in the back of my mind that if I call at the same time every week, they will be more likely to remember me. I am not sure if this is true, but I will keep it up!

One thing I would like to learn more about (with reference to Dementia) is how one with dementia interacts socially with others. I am curious as to how somebody with the disease would interpret group environments, and how they maintain multiple conversations at once. Group environments are stressful even for individuals without Dementia, so I am very curious as to how different the experience is for those who have the disease. I can not imagine how overwhelmed they must feel in unknown environments, so combined with multiple things occurring at once it must be extremely difficult to take in.

Reference:

Sadigh-Eteghad, S., Sahebari, S. S., & Naseri, A. (2020). Dementia and COVID-19: complications of managing a pandemic during another pandemic. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 14(4), 438–439. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-57642020dn14-040017

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3402studentvolunteer-blog · 4 years ago

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Volunteering Blog Post 1: Reflection

I am extremely excited to begin my placement with the Ottawa Dementia Society for many reasons! I am very passionate about the cause, especially given the prevalence and incidence of dementia. As someone who wants to work in the healthcare system, it is going to be extremely rewarding to know that I took part in the success of somebody’s patient. While I know that it is only going to be a minor part, I am someone who believes the smallest differences can make the biggest impacts. This particular position works under the idea that seniors with dementia thrive when given an outlet for social interaction, which has been proven to result in better patient outcomes (Livingston, 2020). During the crazy year of 2020 (and now 2021!) everyone’s world was turned upside down, and people often forget about our most vulnerable populations. With in person interactions removed, this program targeted the need of social interaction for seniors with dementia by adapting and creating a new virtual program.

A typical day for a senior with dementia consists of working their way around everyday tasks. As it is such a broad disease, every person will experience it differently so there is no concrete definition of a day in the life. What is known is that the majority of people with dementia face negative stigma surrounding their condition, as many people do not understand what is going on in the patient’s head. People can be scared of dementia patients due to a fear of the patient becoming aggressive and see the person as somebody who can no longer function. Not many people realize that many dementia patients are still the people they once were, just function a little bit differently. Breaking the stigma is the first step to acceptance, as this condition is not something anybody would choose to acquire.

From this experience, I ultimately hope to gain perception. This can be developed in many forms: understanding how lucky I am to live the life that I live, new insights into the elderly population, and the impacts of social interaction on human success. I also hope to gain a meaningful relationship with my match, as there is nothing more meaningful to me than forming genuine relationships with other people. The position is a minimum 6-month commitment, which I fully intend to continue for as long as possible beyond this minimum. Eventually, this position may transfer to being in person (once safe) which I am hoping will be able to occur during the time that I am volunteering. I am very interpersonal, and I hope that my match feels the exact same way about me.

My placement matches very well into the learning objectives of this course in many ways. Firstly, as this is a course involving diseases of aging, dementia fits perfectly into this category. I will be learning more about the reality of those with dementia and understanding their everyday struggles. Additionally, I will learn of the effects that social interactions can have on a patient with dementia as a potential form of treatment/prevention. This learning experience will provide me with the foundations of developing meaningful relationships with a vulnerable population, in which I hope to translate in my career ambition of being a physician.

Reference:

Livingston, Gill, et al. “Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care: 2020 Report of the Lancet Commission.” The Lancet, vol. 396, no. 10248, Aug. 2020, pp. 413–446, www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext?utm_source=hearingtracker.com, 10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30367-6. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

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