If Memory Serves

While its findings aren't based in science, and it's certainly far from a cure, Penny Garner's radical new therapy might be among some of the best treatment out there.  Daughter of Alzheimer patient Dorothy Johnson, and master of observation, Garner has developed what she believes to be an effective approach to providing dignity, peace and contentment to people living with dementia.

After watching her mother, a former international bridge player and sensational social organizer, live with the degenerative disease for five years, she began to pick up on some recurring behavioral patterns. Her conclusions suggests that while people suffering from dementia are unable to store new facts, they are able to store new feelings. The London Times reports this is the basis for her treatment called Specal — Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer’s. Specal is also the name of the movement's philanthropic arm.

“As we all run on what’s just happened, and they can’t store new facts, their fuel is feelings,” she pointsedout. “It’s abundantly clear that feelings are more important than facts to the person with dementia.”

Garner points out that Alzheimer's patients become upset when say, they've been asked where the keys are and they don't know (because they don't have the information), the event can provoke embarrassment and frustration, further disorienting them and creating an overwhelming sense of instability. Garner suggests that by altogether avoiding the confrontation, the patient won't have to endure the negative emotions brought on by forgetting. Its an admittedly counter-intuitive approach but Penny assures its better not to try to orientate them, but to try and access the long-term memory "which is still functioning as brain scans have proved, and use that to make emotional connections that enable them to make sense of the present."

The Times also reports that Oliver James, the clinical psychologist and Penny’s son-in-law, explained Specal in a book called "Contented Dementia". The pair will go before the Shadow Health Minister, Lord McColl of Dulwich, at the Centre for Policy Studies to present their ideas. The government may very well encourage the implementation of these practices. Currently, the cost to care for the 700,000 U.K. residents living with dementia spikes around £17 billion a year — a figure that will increase astronomically if estimates come to pass — studies suggest that cases are likely to double over the next 30 years.

Even more unscientific to Cotswolds granny's approach, is my reference to The Notebook, yes, the super-sappy film, but perhaps further evidence to Garner's point. If memory serves, Gena Rowlands character was more than contented when James Garner's character  reminded her of the past — good or bad.