Personal Stigma

simplebender

Why is the stigma associated with mental health, dementia, Alz, etc. so pervasive? It affects all of us, even those afflicted……

https://simplebender.com/2024/07/13/joy-in-alzheimers-episode-42-personal-stigma/

fmb

A very powerful blog post, @simplebender . Thank you for bringing this out in the open.

At DH's ALF, only those in most need of MCF capabilities are in the locked MC unit. The rest, all the way through Stage 7, are in the general AL population, Except that they aren't really. Need a bib or use a Broda chair? You're in the Special Needs Dining Room, a place that in comparison to the restaurant-style regular dining room is a dirty, ill-stocked room with bare tables and a sticky floor and with food that is often delivered late and cold. Even for the 4th of July cookout, the Special Needs residents were segregated in a small room within sight of the activities but not integrated with the regular population out on the covered patio. In hospice care? You are now in the 'Life Bridges' wing, ostensibly to receive better care, but it doesn't happen that way. Aides naturally gravitate to the residents who are alert and able to communicate intelligibly. Activities are timed around the regular dining room schedule. Special Needs residents need not apply. In the hallways some of the regular residents turn their heads when I push my DH's Broda chair by. I see revulsion in the eyes of the few who have purely physical disabilities and are in full command of their intellect. From others, who perhaps have anosognosia, I see fear. "No! Not me! Never!" Fear that they, too, could end up like DH, in a Broda and wearing a bib, fondling a fidget quilt, unable to speak more than single words and sometimes not even those. Others, knowing that their abilities are slowly slipping away, simply think, "There but for the grace of God, go I."

simplebender

Thanks for your additions and life examples. If we don't talk about it, it will never get better….please join in our journey at simplebender.com….and courage in yours….