This exhibition asks: How might we as a community better listen to and support individuals with dementia? The fellows posit that the first step is to listen to their voices and consider the lived experience surrounding this diagnosis.
Each year, 10 million people worldwide receive a dementia diagnosis. For many of these individuals, the diagnosis comes with instructions to resolve financial and logistical affairs, but no guidance on the humanistic aspects of this burden. However, life does not end with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or Alzheimer’s. Here, Noelle and Blue share the stories of Sheri and David, two Wisconsinites navigating life post-diagnosis. Listen to heartfelt memories of resilience, triumph, and love while viewing visual vignettes that allow you to perceive the world from their perspectives.
Dementia:
A deterioration of intellectual faculties, such as memory, concentration, and judgment, resulting from an organic disease or disorder of the brain, affecting more than 55 million people worldwide. This all-encompassing definition fails to address one essential aspect of the disease: the individual.
The individual who receives the diagnosis is still a person full of life, memories, and experiences. Even more importantly, this is still a person with a future. In order to form a holistic treatment approach, it is fundamental to consider the lived experience of the individual in diagnosis. Noelle and Blue met with two Wisconsinites navigating life post-diagnosis. Sheri is a former therapist with an adventurous spirit who continues her travels while practicing mindfulness techniques from her career. David is a former engineer who retains his love for tools and desire to make his wife Robyn smile.
Explore the lived experiences of Sheri and Davidpost-diagnosis through this short film.