Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People: Challenges of Dealing with Dementia & Alzheimer’s

Show Guest: Stephen G. Post

Unfortunately, things have not changed that much for the deeply forgetful and their caregivers despite all the money invested in Alzheimer’s pharmacology, which has been slightly effective at best. At present, there is no medicine to slow down the underlying progression of Alzheimer’s and caregivers eventually ask whether the treatments are worthwhile.

In Stephen Post's new book, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, he takes up the theme of caregiver hope and where they can find it. The book then responds in a practical way to sixteen ethical issues that have been raised by thousands of caregivers, as well as the hot button question of “PPAS.” Preemptive physician-assisted suicide for Alzheimer’s disease and the core elements of the “ethics of respectful care” that caregivers aspire to.

Throughout, Dignity for Forgetful People focuses on the extent to which we as caregivers can

respect and abide by the previously or currently expressed preferences of a deeply forgetful person, especially with regard to clinical ethical choices.

To bring this journey to closure, Stephen responds somewhat pastorally to a question that has been asked of him many times: “Is Grandma still there?” In the final chapter, he builds on his own experience, as well as the many well-documented reports of “terminal lucidity” that can occur in the days just before someone dies with dementia. Recounting the loss of his own grandmother years ago with dementia he states, "I “felt” that she was still there underneath the communicative breakdowns when sporadically she expressed her whole self."