A dream, I suppose, for the society, how we all work together, to make one another’s life easier, to help those who are diagnosed, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
A former instructor contacted me, he knew I was an physician, specializing in dementia, and he was diagnosed with the early onset of dementia, and still hoped to continue teaching his courses.
On the concepts of caretaking in dementia, of course, I wanted my patients to stay at work for as long as they all can. He told me about his work, of how the school wasn’t against him working, to help him, they’d even, hired an assistant to help him teach, after further discussions with the assistant, the assistant stated, “he’s so awful, and I had to do most of the work, he became more like the teaching assistant.”
It’s not easy to find a job now, not only is it this way for the younger generations, but, those with handicaps are faced with discrimination at the workplace, and because there’s a growth in number of early onset dementia patients, everybody is now, starting to realize, that there’s, this huge group of younger, able-bodied patients of dementia, who are having a difficult time, finding, and/or keeping work.
This isn’t an easy problem to resolve, but, it’s something we can, work, towards. From the policy front, the government want everybody to work, and, working, is better comparing to being on unemployment benefits. But, there are, the prerequisites to helping this group of individuals.
First, there need to be the owners of businesses, willing to hire this group of workers, for instance, the workers who are diagnosed may need to leave on the job suddenly. It’s a miniscule matter, filing for the leave of absence from work, what’s worrisome, are the abnormal behaviors these early onset dementia patients may exert, and, if those around the person didn’t know how to respond, then, it may become, something “major”.
Secondly, the coworkers may be singling the individual out overtly or covertly. In this situation, it’s considered discrimination, in the least, and bullying, if it’s, serious for instance, looking at the person, “he’s ill”, or making fun in the casual conversations among the coworkers, and, all of this, can deter the individual with early onset dementia from working.
Third, to keep the system of rehabilitation in the psychology and occupation supportive, all of these experts in the field can help the person assess, and base off of one’s current capacity for work, for thought, to design a better system of work for the person, to try to keep the person working consistently, to even better than before. After all, so long as you’re human, you can feel the energies, of how hard someone is trying, and we all want affirmation for a job well done, instead of being pitied, or put up with because we’re, ill. On this part, there are the plans by the Department of Labor that can offer the help that the individuals needed.
Fourth, a need for a stronger support system in the families, as the individual comes home from work, there’s this need of continued support from the families, and on the more practical ends. For instance, the outbreaks or some other reason, it takes the person longer to shower, and as the individual slowly lost the abilities of such, the families shouldn’t exert a negative attitude.
Empathize, a person is ill, and is still working hard, trying to prove one’s own capabilities, working hard, to not become, a burden of the members of the families, it’s truly, difficult. Based off of my instructor, he’s, like those diagnosed with early onset dementia, wanted to keep his ability in work intact; and for us around him, we need to confirm that he is, trying really hard, and to help him the best as we can.
This sort of working hard together, is built on the foundation of empathy, after all, there’s, only going to be an increase of those diagnosed with dementia in the futures to come. In this society of low birthrate, people living longer, think on it: one day, you and I, or our elders, siblings, children, neighbors, may be faced with this sort of a hardship, so, let’s, help these people out today, so the society is more friendly toward those with dementia, and one day, we will be able to, receive the same kindness of treatment when we need to be treated like so.
So, this is based off of do unto others what you would want them to do unto you, and, it’s quite, idealistic, because in those major corporations, the business owners only care about making the bucks, getting the system up and running, and, there won’t be, room for those with early onset dementia in all of this, because of their condition, and this article is, way too ideal, in my opinion, but it gives us a direction that we can work towards, to create a better environment for those with early onset dementia to live in.
Life, the Obstacle Course 