Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

was from, even though I had just answered them two minutes ago. I remembered
feeling guilty as well for trying to make sense of their dementia. I quizzed them on
where they were from, and then asked each of them where they thought the person
sitting next to them was from.
The next day, Jared said he needed some help and so I went up to the third floor. I stood
in front of the double doors and knocked; no one had given me the door code yet. Jared
opened the door and told me the code, but not before teaching me how to cover my
hands when entering it. He said, “We just changed the codes. We have to be careful,
because some of the residents have taken notice of the codes. Some of them are real
escape artists.” He began talking to me about the residents. He informed me that in
order to get Donna to participate in anything, her neighbour Tammy would have to be
involved. She only did something if Tammy did it as well. It seemed to me that Jared had
quite a lot of information about the residents in Memory Care. When I asked him about
a particular mechanical device that I was unsure of, Jared remarked, “That’s for
weighing people without taking them out of their wheelchairs. You weigh the
wheelchair separately. Take notice of that once and for all, and then its simple
subtraction.” He even went further to say, “The caregivers do the weighing, and this
happens once a month. This ensures that the residents with dementia are not under
nourished. They can forget to eat you know. So we regulate their diets as well. It’s not
that people in Memory Care are the only ones with dementia. Many others in Tacoma
Pastures have it. It’s just that these people have it more. And so you learn about their
needs. If you get the chance to transfer one, you’ll see just how light they are. Many of
them forget to eat and you can feel it in their bones when you lift them out of the chair.”
We went to see if Abby was in his room; I was supposed to visit this resident. When we
arrived at his room, Abby was asleep, and I suggested that perhaps we should come
back. Jared said no, and that we should wake him up, and perhaps read some poetry to
him. I asked him again whether or not we should disturb him. Jared replied, “These
people are in bed all day. It’s our [the recreation department’s] job to wake ‘em up.” 18
18 The idea of getting (and keeping residents during the day) out of bed stems from the
idea that residents should be engaged with others and working on sensorial stimulation.
The phrase, “use it or lose it” is sometimes uttered by members of the recreation
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