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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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'Coming out' with Alzheimer's disease
— changes in awareness during a psychotherapy group for people with dementia | | Author(s) | R Watkins, R Cheston, K Jones |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 10, no 2, March 2006 |
| Pages | pp 166-176 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Attitude ; Adjustment ; Group work ; Psychiatric treatment ; Evaluation ; Projects ; Case studies. |
| Annotation | This paper forms the second phase of a project looking at those changes that occurred for participants during a series of time-limited psychotherapy groups for people with dementia. Using the Association of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES), the accounts of one participant (Robert) are analysed across the course of the group. Robert moves from a position in which he wards off awareness that he has dementia of the Alzheimer's type, to being able to joke about having brain changes that are symptomatic of the illness. The change in his discourse about Alzheimer's disease (AD) was accompanied by an increase in Robert's level of affect. However, reflecting on the changes that had occurred to him, Robert commented that before he came to the group, he had been frightened, thinking that "I'm going crazy ... what am I going to be like in another five years?" For Robert, coming to the group had meant that this fear had been replaced by the knowledge that he was not alone. In the light of the move towards early diagnosis, the importance of this model of change in awareness as a means of increasing understanding of the presence of emotional development is discussed. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-061107005 A |
| Classmark | EA: DP: DR: IGG: LP: 4C: 3E: 69P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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