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[Dysphagia] Dementing elders
Hear! Hear! Very eloquently said.
JoAnn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Irene Campbell-Taylor" <eripley@yahoo.com>
To: <dysphagia@b9.com>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 6:32 PM
Subject: [Dysphagia] Dementing elders
>I must protest most strongly to the recent opinions expressed vis-a-vis
>regression to childhood in elders with dementing processes. To those of us
>who have worked extensively with such patients, it is objectionable in the
>extreme to contemplate that professionals are regarding elder individuals
>who have lived, worked, raised families, paid taxes, supported the current
>economy regarded as, in the way one elderly gentleman once told me about
>himself, "something unthinking attached to a diaper." He was diagnosed as
>having SDAT!
> We owe our patients better than this. They are not infants, they are not
> to be infantilized, they are not to be regarded as unaware because,
> believe me, they are far more aware than anyone realizes.
> I have spent many years teaching nurses NOT to speak to dementing elders
> as though they were infants. I teach medical students, and demonstrate to
> them that their patients with dementing illnesses are seniors worthy of
> respect and consideration. The agism that is rampant in society and,
> therefore, in medicine is deplorable and not to be supported in any way by
> those who purport to care for them. Think for a moment. What if it were
> your father or mother?
>
>
> Dr I Campbell-Taylor
> Clinical Neuroscientist
> Exclusive Distributor:
> www.interactivetherapy.com
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> Dysphagia mailing list
> Dysphagia@b9.com
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>
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