Does anyone else think that social services, care home providers and others have a skewed image of what older people in 2024 are like? Their points of reference; their interests; their capabilities (with and without dementia)? There is still this perception of older people nowadays as having significant experience of, for example, WW2. My Dad is coming up for 85, he was born in 1939 just before the War started, so his "memories" of being bombed out in 1941 are actually not his memories. They are his recollections of his parents' memories and family discussions, and from the photo he has of the house with a massive hole in the roof. Most people in their 80s have little/no genuine recollection of the War, nor do people younger than this. I accept some people in their 90s and older may well have actual memories of this time, but these people are fewer in number.
Dad's formative years were mainly in the 1960s when he was in his 20s and hitting 30, and he'd done national service and was out having fun (sometimes too much of it). The 1960s were a time of great change, development, improvement in many ways. People now in their 80s potentially enjoyed nightclubs, concerts, free love (my Dad did plenty of that) etc. They didn't live the staid lives that many envisage of them.
Dad's professional career ran from the late 1950s to the early 2000s, periods of immense change and development. He adopted computer technology early, in the 80s. He acquired one of the first mobile phones available on the Orange network in the UK in the mid 90s, and his mobile number now is still the same as it was then, just with the extra '7' they added in 2001! He acquired tech for his BAHA that connected his mobile phone and television directly into his brain. Yet, social workers are astonished that Dad can still send emails (more or less) and use this as some kind of evidence of his dementia being less serious/advanced. He is still keen to use his mobile phone, but is forgetting how to, unfortunately. His last few Google searches include "how to send email" and "what is a voicemail" and "sent emails on 13.04.24", and he has started drafting emails over and over but not sending them, or then sending the same (more less) thing 4 or 5 times in a row.
It seems to me memory rooms in care home and hospitals need to be updated to reflect the changing demographic of the older people who are being catered for. The memories increasingly need to be more 1950s/60s era than 1930s/40s, and they might need to include tech items that were in use in the mid to late 20th century, as most people becoming in need of care will not have actual memory of these eras very soon.
I think professionals do need to remember when our current older generation grew up and spent their formative years. It's probably a bit more recently than they give credit for! When I get to be old and in need of memory rooms etc. I hope they will be reminding me of the 80s and 90s, not the 1940s, otherwise it will be VERY confusing! 😂
Dad's formative years were mainly in the 1960s when he was in his 20s and hitting 30, and he'd done national service and was out having fun (sometimes too much of it). The 1960s were a time of great change, development, improvement in many ways. People now in their 80s potentially enjoyed nightclubs, concerts, free love (my Dad did plenty of that) etc. They didn't live the staid lives that many envisage of them.
Dad's professional career ran from the late 1950s to the early 2000s, periods of immense change and development. He adopted computer technology early, in the 80s. He acquired one of the first mobile phones available on the Orange network in the UK in the mid 90s, and his mobile number now is still the same as it was then, just with the extra '7' they added in 2001! He acquired tech for his BAHA that connected his mobile phone and television directly into his brain. Yet, social workers are astonished that Dad can still send emails (more or less) and use this as some kind of evidence of his dementia being less serious/advanced. He is still keen to use his mobile phone, but is forgetting how to, unfortunately. His last few Google searches include "how to send email" and "what is a voicemail" and "sent emails on 13.04.24", and he has started drafting emails over and over but not sending them, or then sending the same (more less) thing 4 or 5 times in a row.
It seems to me memory rooms in care home and hospitals need to be updated to reflect the changing demographic of the older people who are being catered for. The memories increasingly need to be more 1950s/60s era than 1930s/40s, and they might need to include tech items that were in use in the mid to late 20th century, as most people becoming in need of care will not have actual memory of these eras very soon.
I think professionals do need to remember when our current older generation grew up and spent their formative years. It's probably a bit more recently than they give credit for! When I get to be old and in need of memory rooms etc. I hope they will be reminding me of the 80s and 90s, not the 1940s, otherwise it will be VERY confusing! 😂
