Why a Growing Camp Is Promoting a More Joyful Approach to Alzheimer's

An increasing number of American caregivers are trying to alleviate the stigma of dementia by de-emphasizing its tragic aspects, reports the Washington Post . "The main framework America has available to contend with this is ... that it's a terrible, destructive ride all the way down and then you die," said geriatrician Bill Thomas. "While factually true, that is extremely unhelpful to families and seniors." Thomas and others are advocating a more adaptive strategy that entails flexibility and a willingness to expand one's ideas of how things are supposed to be — and even to view Alzheimer's as beneficial in certain respects. Thomas' organization, ChangingAging, holds a traveling show exploring the emotions associated with dementia, while a collective movement in Seattle, Wash., coordinates social gatherings at coffee shops, museum tours, zoo walks, and even gibberish conversations for people with dementia and their caregivers. "Dementia is enormously painful," noted Mary Fridley at the East Side Institute in New York. "I truly believe it is an opportunity, if people so choose, to be improvisational, to be silly, to play, to free ourselves from the constraints of truth and knowing and assumptions." Jennifer Carson, director of the University of Nevada at Reno's Dementia Engagement, Education, and Research program, encourages such engagement. "Alzheimer's can be a liberating event, an opportunity to fly," she said. "This is in no way to dismiss the pain and suffering that comes from dementia, but to understand that a lot of that pain and suffering comes from the response."