Upon listening to several personal interviews with people suffering from various illnesses, controversial issues regarding misconceptions and unfounded beliefs about patients suffering Alzheimer’s disease came to life. The disease, largely affecting people at their middle or old age, is characterised by loss of memory and a general deterioration of the mental abilities of individuals. The disease is possible to contain through care by qualified professionals. However, the interviews revealed varied misconceptions by the patients that were either totally unfounded or spread by an ignorant portion of the society.
Part of the reason was that the disease causes the patient to be extremely care-dependent such that upon suffering the disease, one needs a 24-hour care from at least a close relative but more suitably, a qualified professional. This causes the patients to suffer extensive stigmatisation that causes them to avoid seeking care altogether (Burgener, Sandy and Barbara 31) The interviewees expressed certainty that the condition is a guarantee as long as one clocked old age and as such were near confident that they were going to contract the illness. The 11th interviewee, for example, expressed certainty that the disease was genetic and therefore, out of caring for her mother, she was bound to catch the disease.
Aside from stigma on the patient, care-givers are wary of extending help in the fear that they will be subject of courtesy stigma, a condition associated with suffering stigma due to association with a patient suffering stigma as a result of Alzheimer's disease (Werner, Perla and Jeremia 92). The feelings of stigma and exclusion from the society also led to a feeling of being undesired which caused the interviewees not to adhere to prescribed medication. Most of them had to be persuaded to proceed with the medication with some actually having to be tricked.
After watching interview 4, I learnt yet another social behavioural phenomenon associated with patients of Alzheimer’s disease, despair. The interviewee explains how he felt helpless after receiving distress calls from the patient who had difficulties adhering to both medication and diet. The patient, who occasionally would get lost on her way home from Australia, explains how she even resisted help from those willing to offer it including her daughter. The implication from interview 4 is that the disease is a causative agent for despair, perhaps due to stigma that leads to exclusion from one’s friends.
Both interview 4 and interview 11 give an indication to how patients diagnosed with the disease show resistance to medication and other support offered to them. The 11th interviewee, for example, explains how her carer had to put the medicine in a glass of sherry to convince her mother to take it. She reasons that it was not possible for her to trust the mother to follow the prescription on her own. Interview 54, however, gives a case of a patient who improved due to her adherence to the procedures of diet and medication from her care agency.
Interview 54 is, however, of little reliability in the analysis of the response of Alzheimer’s patients to disease as the interviewee begins by pointing that their mother had mistaken the early signs of dementia for old age. Documented research has shown that the greatest barrier to medication for the patients of Alzheimer’s disease is the stigma associated with the disease due to the intensive care nature of the disease. This causes the patients not to seek treatment in the fear that they will be stereotyped.
Listening to interview 28, I got to learn of the misconceptions people have about sexual health. The interviewee, aged 22, confesses that in Scandinavia, using a condom is considered a normal thing. The notion implies that they believe that the use of a condom is a perfect means of protection from contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The interviewee mentions how other ladies looked down on her due to her habit of sleeping with multiple men. The males however were okay with her behaviour. The interview does not discuss the medication.
In my view, as the Scandinavians view the use of condoms as normal, they are unlikely to consider alternative medications since they are convinced that the solution to sexual health is the use of condoms. Besides, the stigma directed at her by the other women for her habit of sleeping with multiple partners could deter her from seeking medication just as in the case of the Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Works cited
Burgener, Sandy C., and Barbara Berger. "Measuring perceived stigma in persons with progressive neurological disease Alzheimer's dementia and Parkinson's disease." Dementia 7.1 (2008): 31-53.
Werner, Perla, and Jeremia Heinik. "Stigma by association and Alzheimer's disease." Aging and Mental Health 12.1 (2008): 92-99.
