Walking with a person into dementia: Creating care together

Dementia is still a feared condition and perhaps fear is one of the greatest barriers ro quality life for those who have dementia. Too offen people with dcmcmia are shut off from others in the community and may even be isolated within and from their own families. It was this factor that really struck me when I began worldng with Christine Bryden soon after her initial diagnosis. Christine and I firsc met more than a decade ago. We were both members of a Christian group on a Cursillo team in 1995, preparing for a forthcoming Cursillo. It was during those weeks of preparation that her diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease was confirmed, following extensive investigations and involving a second medical opinion. This was the beginning of a devastating lime for Christine and a shock for the rest of us who were her friends and working on the Cursillo team with her. It was hard to believe that someone so capable and high achieving in all that she did, was suddenly getting lost on the way home from work.At our final session of Cursillo, Christine invited me to walk the journey into dementia with her as her spiritual director (spiritual guide). Her invitation came, she said, because I was both a geriatric nurse and a priest; she felt she needed both. This journey was to become a major learning experience for me.