The support group I'm in has tentatively set up a panel with med students on November 18. We're to share things we'd like doctors to know, that often they don't seem to, about the life of a dementia caregiver and his/her concerns. If anyone has info/concerns to offer, I'd appreciate it. One neurologist we saw, talked over me and didn't seem interested in my comments or questions. I envy those of you who have doctor's who ask how YOU are. Maybe that's something I'll mention.
In many school districts across the country, they have a program to discourage teenage pregnancy. They have a life-like doll that cries until it is fed or changed, and it is progreammed to be wet, hungry, or fussy, at all times of day and night. The crying will not stop until its needs are met. Students are given the dolls to take home for a weekend, and when they return to school on Monday, not one of them would ever consider having unprotected sex. They had no idea of what is involved in caring for an infant.
I would strongly suggest that, as part of their training, medical students are assigned to a full time dementia caregiver for a weekend. They would have to go home with them and assume their duties from Friday night until Monday morning. Then make THEM make the list of what caregivers need. Nothing can compare to experiential learning.
What I would like them to know is to be real clear with the caregiver to be. On my first visit to the psysocialgolst he spent the first part of the meeting talking about DH having a neurological disorder. It was not until the end of the meeting he said dementia. Even then I did not understand what we were talking about. I did not fully understand just how much our world was going to change. I was not given any reading material to take home or numbers to call. Other than the number of the neurologist we were to see, I was left alone. Thank goodness I was able to use the internet to find out where we stood.
Joan, I think the missing factor (for the intern) would be LOVE. Caring for someone you barely know would be easier I think, than caring for someone you've loved for most of your life, that you know is dying, but who is driving you totally crazy doing things you would never have dreamed he'd do. The love, anger, exhaustion, frustration are emotions the Intern would never feel over the weekend or even an entire month, because they wouldn't be able to see the person they used to be.