Literacy Might Shield The Brain From Dementia

posted by Azra Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: Gary Stix in Scientific American:


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Socrates famously railed against the evils of writing. The sage warned that it would “introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing.” He got a few things wrong. For one, people nurture Socrates’ memory because of all of the books written about him. But he also was off the mark in his musings about a forgetfulness of the soul. If anything, it appears that just the opposite holds: a study of hundreds of illiterate people living at the northern end of an island considered to be a world media capital roundly contradicts the father of Western philosophy.

Evaluations of the elderly in the environs of Manhattan’s Washington Heights (the neighbourhood immortalised by a Lin-Manuel Miranda musical) reveal that the very act of reading or writing—largely apart from any formal education—may help protect against the forgetfulness of dementia. “The people who were illiterate in the study developed dementia at an earlier age than people who were literate in the study,” says Jennifer J. Manly, senior author of the paper, which appeared on November 13 in Neurology.

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Older adults and violence: an analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews in England involving adults over 60 years of age

an article by Susan Mary Benbow (University of Chester, UK; Older Mind Matters, Manchester, UK), Sarmishtha Bhattacharyya (University of Chester, UK; Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wrexham, North Wales, UK) and Paul Kingston (University of Chester, UK) published in Ageing & Society Volume 39 Issue 2 (June 2019)

Abstract

Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) are conducted when an individual aged 16 or over appears to have died from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they are related or with whom they are in an intimate relationship or who is a member of the same household. DHRs aim to identify lessons to be learned, to improve service responses to domestic abuse and to contribute to prevention of domestic abuse/homicide.

We submitted Freedom of Information requests to English Local Authorities to identify DHRs where victim, perpetrator or both were aged over 60.

Collected Reports and/or Executive Summaries were thematically analysed.

Analysis identified four key themes in the context of the key relationship and caring:

• major mental illness of the perpetrator;
• drug and/or alcohol abuse;
• financial issues; and
• a history of domestic abuse in key or family relationships.

We analysed 14 adult family homicides, 16 intimate partner homicides and five homicide–suicides.

Age per se did not emerge as a significant factor in our analysis. Terminology needs to be standardised, and training/education regarding risk assessment needs to be improved in relation to age, myths around ageing/dementia and stresses of caring.

Management of mental illness is a key factor.

A central repository of DHR Reports accessible for research and subject to regular review would contribute to maximising learning and improving practice.

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The potential for lifelong learning in dementia: a post-humanist exploration

an article by Jocey Quinn and Claudia Blandon (Plymouth University, UK) published in International Journal of Lifelong Education Volume 36 Issue 5 (2017)

Abstract

Numbers of people with dementia are projected to grow to 682 million globally by 2050. However, despite this escalation, the widely-promoted positive vision of lifelong learning throughout all ages does not extend to people with dementia. Constructions of learning for those with dementia are predominantly limited to the management of symptoms.

The focus on retrieval of memory does not seem to allow for the emergence of the learner as a ‘new beginner’ or as a teacher. This paper focuses on a recent study, Beyond Words, to challenge dominant assumptions about dementia and learning.

Using a post-humanist theoretical framework, this longitudinal qualitative study explores the benefits of community music for those who face problems communicating with words: such as those with dementias, autism, learning difficulties and brain damage.

Rather than characterising them as ‘non-verbal’ it positions them as ‘post-verbal’ and able to communicate in different ways. Moving away from discussions of ‘selfhood’, the paper uses a post-humanist approach to explore an agentic assemblage including one person with dementia from the study and also explores how another participant teaches important lessons about materiality and time.

It demonstrates that learning and ‘new beginnings’ and ‘becomings’ can and do take place at advanced stages of dementia, challenging the assumption that dementia is a wasteland for learning. It also shows how people with dementia have much to teach researchers about living and learning.

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Dementia, disability rights and disablism: understanding the social position of people living with dementia

an article by Carol Thomas and Christine Milligan (Lancaster University, UK) published in Disability & Society Volume 33 Issue 1 (2018 )

Abstract

This article considers the recent history and consequences of positioning people living with dementia in the realms of disability, disablism and disability rights. The geo-political focus is the United Kingdom and neighbouring resource-rich nations in the Global North.

The first section examines the growing trend of identifying ‘dementia’ with ‘disability’, a trend fuelled by the expansion of dementia-related activism and research.

The second section focuses on how researchers who have published in Disability & Society and other journals have applied the social model of disability to individuals living with dementia.

The third section discusses three conceptual challenges that lie ahead for those who choose to research and theorise the dementia/disability connection.

These challenges concern:

• theorising dementia as disability;
• understanding intersectionality in dementia contexts; and
• understanding ‘abuse’ in dementia contexts.

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