The other day I was having a consult at the psychogeriatric ward of a local hospital. While we were discussing a CT scan of my father's brain, the psychiatrist mentioned that his ward was really aimed at reshaping disruptive behaviour -- like painting the bathroom with excrement -- of patients with dementia (pdf).
Thinking the conversation over, this sounds a bit like social engineering -- which makes me wonder: have other Soylentils been in a position where they've taken care of an elderly parent, and what psychological principles did you apply to moderate/shape behaviour?
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @03:42AM
Aberrant behaviour can be quickly corrected by transcranial application of mains current. The same apparatus may be used to cook frankfurters.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:06AM
Attach jumper cables to labia and/or testicles.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @03:48AM
If a person exhibits unwanted behavior, treat that person like the person doesn't exist. Inform everyone within your sphere of influence that the person who exhibited unwanted behavior doesn't exist. Make sure no one talks to, listens to, acknowledges, or interacts with the person in any way, not ever again.
This best practice is known as The Female Method.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:40AM
If they haven't got a cure or proper treatment I won't be getting better nor really be having years of fun fulfilling times while stuck in some ward getting shit on myself and everything else.
No need to kill me if I turn out to be one of the kindly demented people who are happy and making other people happy. But unfortunately that's not what happens in many cases. The afflicted get aggressive, paranoid, angry and miserable.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:46AM
Liar, if you'd rather be dead, you'd be drowning yourself in the toilet bowl, and not smearing shit on the walls.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @05:17AM
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @06:51AM
That technique has been around longer than the Roman Catholic Church.
When done by the Church, it's known as "excommunication".
However, every clique I have ever known will do this. It is NOT specific to religion, but my own experience is religions are very blatant about doing it.
That kind of sniggery is one of the main reasons I fail to find my spiritual needs met in a church. The people are good, however I often find the leaders mostly in it for the money.
"Will you be obedient to me? No? Then I kick the sand from my feet and move on. I do not cast my pearls before swine!". The whole trick of many religions seems to be to trawl for anyone who will fall for the bait, without considering what is emitting it.
Watch successful men. Do what they do, not what they say. So, if the Fifty-Eight Dollar Seed preacher implores you to send him a seed, ask HIM for fifty-eight dollars. If he fails to remit, now you know why he's rolling in money and you are not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @08:55PM
So, if the Fifty-Eight Dollar Seed preacher implores you to send him a seed, ask HIM for fifty-eight dollars. If he fails to remit, now you know why he's rolling in money and you are not.
I hadn't heard about this before. I mean, I know it's a common belief that god rewards good people with money. Did a little googling and found this [blogspot.com]. It's a journal of somebody who did the 58 dollar seed thing (and was obviously setting out to show that it doesn't work). Found it morbidly hilarious.
Day 48
Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank you for another wonderful day. Bless it, and keep me in your grace. Bless my 58 day seed also, and use it to pay off my $3,353.93 loan, according to the 58 day seed covenant. With you, all things are possible. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
I'm in the final 10 days of the covenant. The "home stretch" if you will. The closer I get to day 58, the bigger the miracle will be. $3,400 dollars is nothing to God. He could easily have a millionaire just write me out a check. I read an article about a guy who found $2,000 dollars in a shirt that he bought at a thrift store. That could happen to me. God can just open up the windows of heaven and provide the money that I need to be debt free. Nothing is too difficult for God.
Afternooon: I found a quarter today. If I apply it to my debt, that will bring the total to $3,353.68.
(Score: 2, Informative) by hopp on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:05AM
As a spouse of a geriatrician and working in an Elders home as a teen here are the principles I know to use:
1)Normalcy. If they are in a recognizable location they are more comfortable. Context helps the mind.
2)Redirection. If they are being unreasonable about something redirect them in another direction.
3)Degradation. An adult with moderate or worse dementia behaves as a toddler. Treat them with care you'd afford a three year old.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:09AM
Yeah but regarding point #3, the way I've always dealt with three year olds is by kicking them out of my way.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:52AM
There's also work with playing music from when they were younger to try and get them into a better frame of mind (several programs regarding this).
Using several visual cues so they don't get confused as often (picture they recognize on their room door). Keep them engaged in activities as much as possible.
The other part is if they are not harming themselves or others, give 'em some space. Use to let a Ms. run around naked because she just didn't want to wear clothes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday August 21 2016, @06:38AM
Regarding number 3: from too much first-hand experience, treating a senior parent like a toddler only works if it's in the "would you like X or Y" (e.g. giving limited choices so they feel at least minor control) psychological-tricks approach — if it's actually degrading, it will almost invariably make things worse.
A doctor is already an authority figure (offspring almost never are) — a patient's far more likely to meekly obey a doctor than they will if treated similarly by their adult offspring, especially if the senior's mental state doesn't let them forcibly remind themselves to put up with it out of gratitude.
Likewise, most elder-care facilities (aside from the absolute best) fill most of their non-medical (and even some medical) positions with whoever's desperate enough to do the work for minimum wage, which typically means people that can't get or keep another job. That's why places like that are well-known for high incidents of physical & emotional abuse. IOW, what you saw as a teen most likely wasn't a good example to follow.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:45AM
When we had to move my mother, we used what people refer to as the bus stop trick. She has serious problems with dementia and memory and would wander off. We live in the country (nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile), so finding her was usually hours later and miles away. While talking with a friend, he mentioned how his mother's Alzheimer's nursing home has a fake bus stop out front. Well, we constructed little huts with glass walls, a bench, bus stop signs, and a heater on our property and the closest neighbors on either side. Whenever mom wandered off or insisted on going home, we let her pack a suitcase and leave. She'd usually go to the bus stop and wait for a bus for a while and then come back. Every so often, we'd get a call from the neighbors that she showed up asking them when the bus was coming, but that, thankfully, became rare. As a bonus, the kids and neighbor's kids loved the stops in the winter as a warm place to wait for the school bus and they are slow spreading around the school district.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:51AM
My mom was a school bus driver who was gang raped by horny teenagers, you insensitive clod! She never recovered from the experience. To this day we can't even let her look at a bus stop or she will have a panic attack.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:58AM
Thanks for offering about the only compassionate and creative solution so far (in this discussion) to this heart breaking problem.
If you love your parents, you love them through thick and thin, and while it may be hard (it was for the last 18 months of my father's 101 years), you do it and don't whine about it. Just think of all the shit they got (literally) from you when you were an infant and later a rotten, self absorbed teenager.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by darkfeline on Sunday August 21 2016, @06:37AM
But if you really love your parents, would you subject them to living with dementia? My mom always said, "If I ever get to that point, just off me." Of course, if that day comes, she may very well deny either having dementia or wanting assisted death. Would it be right to respect her present wishes while mentally disabled, or her original wishes while mentally sound? Which is more humane?
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @09:05AM
Kill her now, then yourself. All problems solved.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @01:00PM
> would you subject them to living with dementia?
This is what a health care proxy is for -- you write your own (perhaps with legal help) to tell your family what to do if you are unable to care for yourself. The more detail the easier it will be for your family to follow your wishes.
Two siblings I know were terribly distraught because their mother was too thoughtless to create a health care proxy. Through some rare fluke, the mother (in her 70s) went quickly from being healthy to being in a non-responsive coma. They went along with the health care system keeping her alive for ~6 weeks, but eventually made the heart rending decision to pull the plug on life support. The siblings may still feel some guilt for "killing their mother"...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @04:38PM
Just a minor correction, a health care proxy or HP-POA, allows people to make decisions for you, it does not make it so your actual wishes are carried out. In order to do that, you need a separate document called an "Advanced Directive," "Advanced Healthcare Directive," or "Living Will," depending on the particular state you are in.
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Sunday August 21 2016, @05:01PM
I don't think that we'll be able to accurately answer this question until either a) we develop a cure for it, so we can ask them how bad it actually was (although the question will likely be moot at that point), or b) develop mental telepathy of some kind so someone can take a peek in there to find out. Until then, we're just guessing.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday August 21 2016, @08:34PM
That's a dangerous line of philosophy to pursue, because how do you know how *anyone* else feels? Maybe everything you do is pissing everyone else off but there's a big conspiracy to keep you out of the loop, and you're living in a fake social bubble.
Here's a quote from The Grand Design:
We can only assume, based on how we perceive reality and our own knowledge, that dementia and the expected sense of helplessness that accompanies it is suffering, but it is only so much "guessing" as everything we do and know is "guessing".
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1) by driven on Sunday August 21 2016, @02:50PM
Painting the walls with excrement may be the only form of "power" someone has over their "captors". You can pout all you want - they don't give a shit. But give them a big mess to clean up and now they have a problem they need to listen to. I know someone who went through this - they denied this person their cigarettes. Out came the paint brush - then they got their cigarettes back.