Baptcare Dementia and Pastoral Care Symposium: Improving Our Practice

28 June 2011

La Trobe University City Campus

“My name is Joe, not dementia”

Pastoral Perspectives and Reflective Practice

Benetas Pastoral Care Team

The challenge for all of us is to develop a pastoral sensibility that enables us to relate to the whole person and to avoid merely

reacting to the symptoms and related behaviours that come with the many forms of dementia.

The Spiritual Journey

The journey toward spiritual well being and wholeness is very much influenced by the key existential questions about life’s meaning:

Who am I?Where do I come from?

Where am I going?Why?

“My name is Joe, not “dementia”!

I would like to tell you about 5 things that are very important to me & that give me a great deal of pleasure. These things may call on my intellect, or may be task focused & tangible, or may be social or draw on my spirituality or the ways I go about making meaning in my life:

1. ………………………………………………………………………………………

2. ………………………………………………………………………………………

3. ………………………………………………………………………………………

4. ………………………………………………………………………………………

5. ………………………………………………………………………………………

My Name is ……………………………….I have been doing this work for

………

WHO AM I?

Adapted from workshop facilitated by Alzheimer’s Australia Vic

Spirituality and Meaning Making

Just because I have lost much cognitive

ability, does this mean that I cannot communicate about

spiritual issues? Is my cognitive

function necessary for my spirituality?How do changes in

my cognitive awareness affect my

spirituality?How important is ‘memory’ to my

spirituality?

FRAGMENTS OF INSIGHT

•Embodied Memories Lillian

•Recurring EmotionsLucy

•Desire for Healing & ForgivenessVeronica

•Sense of the SacredSam

If each of us were to walk in these people’s shoes, which of their insights would be spiritual

or meaningful to me?

Presentation title

What do we see?

A disease with a set of symptoms

and behaviours?

Or

A person who happens to be living with an

illness?

“My name is Joe, not “dementia”!

Some things to

think about…

Friendship and social inclusion

Changing the discourse: death? Life?

“I hope that I will be loved and cared for just for who I am, even if who I am is difficult for me and for others”.

“My name is Joe; not dementia!”

“My name is Joe, not “dementia”!

In the Winter of my lifeI suppose

that I shall becomewrinkled and unthinking

but I hope that I do not forgetthat once there was a Spring.

In dealing with my youthI must remember

that a bird has flownhigh in the summer sky

and seen the blueand felt the sun.

I hope that it will stay with methe power to dreamand be a visionary

and that I shall retainthe ability to see

tiny tender unnecessary things:A weeping tree

A precious flowerA colourful butterfly

A capricious beeand that I shall ever be touched

sensitively.

‘Tangents’: A Selection of Poems by Anne Chapman Parratt

(A Resident of Benetas Lovell House)

“My name is Joe, not “dementia”!