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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”!
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