4 ms·
It seems like a well-meant idea but how do you prevent it becoming exploitative? Exposing dementia patients to random members of the public in a service role wi
by jnty 7y ago
It seems like a well-meant idea but how do you prevent it becoming exploitative? Exposing dementia patients to random members of the public in a service role with no understanding of the state of their condition seems like a pretty good way of frequently upsetting them. And how does employment by consent work when you can't actually quite remember why you're in a situation and how you got there?
It sounds like - probably to address these concerns - this is a short-lived 'activity' rather than a going concern, potentially with hand-selected and well-briefed guests rather than arbitrary customers off the street.
- gvhst 7y agoI wasn’t surprised to find that this happened in Japan, where there are strong societal norms not to make trouble / break the rules. When you combine this with a respect for the elderly I think you have a situation where it will go much better than if this happened in, say, New York City.
- Angostura 7y agoIt was put together by Maggie's a dementia charity which in the UK has a very good reputation.
- jnty 7y agoI was a bit surprised by this too because Maggie's is actually a cancer charity in the UK. [1] As I say I imagine it's being handled fairly sensitively in reality. I'm more objecting to the whimsical feel-good description in the article which sort of denies agency to the dementia patients and treats them as funny props. [1] https://www.maggiescentres.org/about-maggies/ https://www.maggiescentres.org/about-maggies/
- orblivion 7y agoThis seems funny (as a concept) in a really dark way, to the point where it feels inappropriate to implement with real people. It's hard to imagine laughing at mistakes made by people with dementia as being "in good fun". At least for the general public. (Friends and family, I understand it happens and can be appropriate.)