Laurie L. Henry
Professor Woodring
English 101
June 26, 2015
Experience Twelve Minutes of Dementia
In 2010, ABC News reporter Cynthia McFadden participated in a simulation. To view this segment, please visit: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/virtual-dementia-tour-families-understanding-alzheimers-disease-11226182. This simulation gives insight on the daily struggles that a dementia patient copes with. The project simulates the physical, mental, and emotional constraints the patient must overcome in order to complete the most basic tasks. Ms. McFadden followed Blaine Wilson, his new wife, and his mother, Lawanda, for four years. The goal was to study the effects of Ms. Wilson’s Alzheimer’s disease on the family with in-home cameras and extensive interviews. In the Nightline segment, you see Ms. McFadden and Mr. Blaine put on cataract-simulating goggles, rubber gloves, and tape to restrict movement of hands and simulate arthritis, headphones with confusing, clamoring noises, and adaptive shoe inserts to simulate the instability in walking. The administrators give the subjects five basic tasks to complete, ranging from putting away dishes, to putting on a tie. These tasks take place in a home that they have never entered previously.
While the simulation appears effective, in no way does it fully represent the confusion and fear that the patient experiences. Firstly, the subjects may have performed the tasks more comfortably in a place they were familiar. Ms. McFadden and Mr. Blaine were both put in unfamiliar environments which may have added additional levels of confusion. While this appears as a minor detail, some researchers have linked location to level of success in Alzheimer’s patients. As stated by Gwi-Ryung Son, Barbara Therrien, and Ann Whall, “the environment can serve as a cue to remind people to connect present and past, and to link experience and memory” (263). Thus, the subjects may have experienced more obstacles while completing the given tasks in the unfamiliar location.

The segment cuts from person to person, and does not show the tasks from start to finish. Only a few minutes into the simulation, Ms. McFadden is showing anger towards the tasks; whereas, Mr. Blaine stays relatively calm throughout the entire simulation. This presents an interesting question whether or not a difference in temperament and demeanor plays a role in the reactions and outburst of dementia patients. While both subjects are visibly