TV portrayals of Alzheimers

[helen0610]

hi all,
i'm a final year student at Sheffield Hallam University and i'm currently working on my dissertation which is about 'the experiences of caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease', ive completed my interviews with family carers and now i am at the stage of writing it all up,eeek!!!,however i've found an area that was mentioned by my participants that has really really interested me-the portrayal of Alzheimer's Disease (and other dementias) in the media e.g. TV and film (my participants mentioned the Mike Baldwin storyline in Coronation Street saying that its really inaccuarte), i've searched loads on the internet for literature relating to the portryal of alzheimer's disease suffers but theres hardly anything that i think is appropraite or enlightening! Therefore i was wondering whether anybody would give me their views on TV, films and/newspaper portrayal of Alzheimer's disease/dementia. Any comments would be hugely appreciated!!!!!!
thanks you and best wishes
helen

 

[daughter]

Hi Helen,

You may find these useful for starters:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/TalkingPoint/Discuss/showthread.php?t=1457&page=1

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/TalkingPoint/Discuss/showthread.php?t=2616&page=1

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/TalkingPoint/Discuss/showthread.php?t=2798&page=1

Good luck with writing up your dissertation!

 

[helen0610]

thanks for the links

thank you so much for those links, they are brilliant- exactly what i was looking for!!
thanks again
helen

 

[Brucie]

Hi Helen
regarding the news media, you might want to check http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/talkingpoint/discuss/showthread.php?t=2798

did you have an Early Onset families in your interviews?

Best wishes for your research

PS there's a pub that does wonderful liver and bacon with Yorkshire gravy - right on campus! [hope you are not vegetarian ]

 

[helen0610]

me again

hello all
i'm not quite sure quite what i'd like to do with some of the quotes that you've all so kindly directed me too at the moment (i need to speak to my tutor first) but without a doubt i'll ensure confidentiality etc (i wil post a msg when ive spoken to my tutor and keep u up to date)
i basically just wanted to get a general idea and feel of what people thought about the media portrayal of Alzheimer's,and this has been achieved. But because my disseratation is based entireley around the experiences of carers of alzheimer's disease family members- i obviously have to focus my work around all of that but i thought it would be interesting to add it into my discussion part and suggest an investigation into the media potrtryal of AD is suitable for future research...i may even investigate it myself one day when i graduate! at the moment im pretty interested in having a career within the dementia field possibly because my mum is a support carer so i think i've somehow inherited a sense of interest within that area! lucky me!

thank you for your much appreciated help
helen

p.s
Brucie, I interviewed early stage and late stage family carers- and the transcription took me hours and hours and hours!!!my main findings so far are that people miss the lack of spontaneity in their lives due to AD, they dont recieve enough social support, and a lot talked about the value of aricept, yes hallam is very good for food, u should check out the sweet and sour chicken! its not a bad uni too!
Best wishes

 

[Brucie]

I interviewed early stage and late stage family carers

Hi Helen

early stage and early onset are different..... just to clarify, did you interview any carers where the person with dementia was younger than 65? Ideally, around 50?

The challenges are somewhat different, though not necessarily any less drastic than at any other age.

 

[Dearth]

PS there's a pub that does wonderful liver and bacon with Yorkshire gravy - right on campus! [hope you are not vegetarian ]

No good to me then as a 'devout veggie'.

Helen... I've found this and posted elsewhere on the forum about an Indian Film:
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/talkingpoint/discuss/showthread.php?t=2907

Not much more to go off I'm afraid, but I'll be doing a 'Columbo' here and trying my damnedest to find more about it.

Also - the film 'Iris' is something that I highly recommend... I got mine cheap quite some time ago from www.play.com - the best of it is - it's about her life story and NOT just her decline through A.D. - which I feel is excellent in that it's more 'person centred' rather than 'treating someone as an illness' (i.e. that which Tom Kitwood applied as 'labelling' under his Malignant Social Psychology studies).


Hope this is of use to you.

Best wishes.



N.