In this CNN story, a judge jailed a 75 year old man who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The old man still believes he’s a travelling telephone salesman.
The judge then ordered the man to be put in a facility that can give him proper care.
A question:
Would it be considered cruel in any way to play into what the old man believes and some how make him believe he no longer has his job? Maybe try to convince him he’s been “transferred” to a desk job and no longer has to travel by car?
Cruel? Maybe. Counterproductive? Certainly. With Alzheimers, it’s pretty damn hard to ‘convince’ a patient of anything, let alone of something completely fictional. And in any case, the problem tends to be of regression, returning to behavioural patterns from many years ago (in my grandad’s case, he was unable to find the toilet, but could use a bucket that was placed under his bed, as he had done for the first twenty years of his life).
If his family can’t watch him and make sure that he doesn’t end up lost (lots of alzheimer’s patients do, they go out for a walk and become lost because they forget they no longer are living where they are now) If he’s driving that would be worse, he could end up anywhere. Plus the fact he might cause an accident because he forgets something.
As to your questions, it probably wouldn’t work he might remember for a bit then forget that. But in the article you linked it says that they have tried to convince him he doesn’t work already.
I’ve had conversations with people with alzheimers, it’s tough to get them to realize things aren’t how they think they are and often you spend the time talking about the same thing. Like I said, if his family can’t watch him then he needs help.
I don’t get it. How hard can it be to keep car keys out of his hands?
I know Alzheimer’s patients can wander off and get lost. One actually stumbled around the grounds if a friend’s house one noght, and we all went out armed with baseball bats and beer bottles to find out who was crashing about in the shrubbery.
But if they wander off on foot, at least they won’t kill anyone they stagger into, and they can’t get nearly as far.
I wonder how the family tried to stop him. If it was no more than saying, “Hey, Pop, you retired 20 years ago”, I can see where he wouldn’t listen.
I was picturing something more elaborate.
I must admit I know very little about the disease. I can’t possibly imagine how horrible it must be. Then again, if you were this advanced, I guess you wouldn’t know. You must imagine the rest of the world has gone off the edge.
Why does everyone assume a “desk job” is a snap? Desks can be extremely dangerous to the untrained. On the average desk you will come into contact with a poor posture chair, pencil sharpeners, correctional fluid, staplers etc. Not to mention the risk of paper cuts and repetative strain injury.
When will people appreciate the risks us “desk jockeys” take everyday and stop trying to get the courts to foist “nutjobs” into an already extemely dangerous work environment. :mad:
Hmmmmmm…how to respond?
If you’re trying to make a joke, please try again, because you have failed miserably.
If not, well, perhaps a holiday is in order. I have a desk job. In fact I’ve had several and nobody had to die.