Model Answer Unit 4, Activity 2, Step B
How can Language shape our Perception of Senior Learners?
This is a model answer. Your notes might be different.
Not everyone might be comfortable to be given the label “suffering from dementia”
because it may not describe what is ultimately a very diverse and individual experience.
This highlights the importance of choosing our own words carefully, when speaking about
and speaking with people with dementia. I have noticed that people who have an illness
that severely impacts their lives do not want to be defined by having this illness. They still
want to be seen as an individual with their own life story and key people as part of this
story, an individual with specific skills, professional and otherwise, and while having a
particular illness does impact them, it does not make them who they are. At times they will
feel they are actually ‘suffering’ from a condition such as dementia and the debilitating
effects it can have. Yet, there are other times when they will experience many positive
things through being with others and doing things they enjoy.
Download this answer as a Word document:
()
Return to Unit 4