Nice post!

Nice post!

This is to Lucy! Good for you, you are an inspiration. Thanks. Doc

Thank you for your insight, Ray. It certainly provides a valuable input on something that, admittedly, many people still struggle with this. We have included your article in our Weekly Digest because we know this will help our readers can certainly learn a great deal from your words. You can check it out here: http://www.altcp.org/blog/weekly-digest-dementia-from-different-perspectives.

Rick, you express yourself so well! I hope we can stop the idiocy that has overtaken this country. I felt many years ago that our right to freedom of speech and the right we have to express ourselves was going to one of the first freedoms to go, and it has been happening more and more. We are all so afraid of being offended or of offending someone by even our most innocent of comments. Where has our common sense gone to just say something in the way we wish to say it. PC invades everything, and is ridiculous! When did we allow others, as you say,Rick, to sit behind some desk and dictate how we must address other people!!

I agree so much, Lucy -- thank you.

So well said!! Thank you!

I am first and most importantly Lucy, then I am a widow. I live with Multiple Personalities (a Survival System NOT a disorder) and I suffer from depression and several autoimmune illnesses. I am quite severely disabled, not "less enabled". I'm currently managing my Lewy Bodies, though down the road it may cause suffering. When my Beloved was alive we were Co-Carers for each other. He like Phyllis June and Peggy was my memory, my support and very much my carer, as I was for him. Neither one of us worried about our relationship being unequal. Frankly, it was/is and should not (abuse aside) be the concern of anyone else. I am a "Carer" for my widowed BIL who does suffer with his dementia. I am his anchor in a shifting world, his memory yardstick, his best friend and scapegoat and this relationship too is no one else's problem/concern. One day if I get to live long enough I will be an old person and I don't want to be told I'm a "senior citizen" or other weasel words.
I am a patient not "a Service User, Client" of my Doctor.
I intensely dislike being told by people who've never met me that I find certain labels/terminology offensive. I'm offended by people trying to whitewash what I live with every day. I absolutely hate with a passion (that I hope I never lose) forms that require me to list my ethnicity, religion and my sexual orientation, what on earth business is this to anyone else? Or my job and list housewife, unemployed as options but not disabled. I object to vast amounts of time/energy/money being wasted on finding idiot words/phrases to pretend that we are all "happy campers" with never a care in this world.
I have many cares, I live constantly in excruciating pain (no there are no more pain management/medication options left), my multiplicity and some of my disabilities were caused directly by the terrible treatment meted out to me by "my primary care givers" or biological parents and their friends. For the most part I am seen as a "happy camper" for precisely 1 reason ~ my choice! I choose to live my life with a grin from ear to ear. I choose to decide who I share my story with and I reserve the right to be the one to decide what I call my life and it's difficulties.
I'm delighted to have an opportunity to vent on this one :-)
If you've read this far then thank you for sticking it out thus far :-)

Thank you!! Enough of this PC bull!! Maybe we are starting to wake up.

Political correctness is an evil concept fomented by people who don't like to be referred to as different.

We are all different, yet we are all the same. We are all, from all around the world, human beings, with the same organs, bones and other stuff as everyone else. Yes we come in various colors, sizes and shapes; yes we have different thoughts, ideas, ideals and goals, but that is what makes us all different yet the same.

Like Phyllis June is to Rick, so Peggy is to me. She is the one person in this world I truly trust, the one person who knows me best and what is best for me, and she's an RN to boot!!! (how did I get so lucky). She IS my caregiver, my protector, my voice. She makes sure I do what I need to do when I need to do it, helps me when I need help, and does for me if I can't do it myself. And that does not bother me; I'm proud of her for it.

My dog, a dachsund named Dee Dee is my care partner. She keeps up with me, makes sure I go for walks, barks to alert me to things (including seizures), and barks when I need help. And that does not bother me, I am proud of her for it.

I have Lewy Body dementia and Frontotemporal dementia. I don't hold those up as badges of honor (my military service and 35 years as a human service professional is that), but Lewy and FT are part of who I am. I have dementia! But I am NOT demented! I am a patient; that is what you are called when you see a doctor, just as I am a father because I have children and a grandfather because I have grandchildren.

None of those things make me different, but in and of themselves they do make me unique because not everyone is what I am. Call me what you want, but be accurate when you do: I am ME. And if that offends you, YOU have a problem.

Rings familiar with me. My mom was diagnosed in 2011 and has been residing in a
Memory-Care facility since 01/2013 So far so good...but, all relative...right? None the less, we are pleased with the care she has. We recommend Waterford Estates for independent, assisted and memory care. Hazel Crest, IL.
My analogy which describes this torment is...when a bandage is slowly pulled off...it's slow and hurts! It saddens me to leave her every time we have visited. The out-of-pocket monthly has proven to be a bureaucratic game of chess through out this country.
David & James (son's)

Prior to my husband's diagnosis, he thought he was a very forgetful person. It made him feel bad about himself, because no matter how hard he tried he couldn't fix it. He was glad when we got the diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia, because it was the disease not him. There are also differences in behaviors between Alz and LBD, so the "labels" are helpful. Using them also helps educate people that there are differences.

Great article. Political correctness often goes too far. Having been in special education for over 35 years however, I always tell people to "put the child or person first" so it would be "the patient/man/ woman/person with Alzheimer's", After all it is the person who is important, not the diagnosis.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Not only is this politically correct terminology a bunch of nonsence, it is outright dangerous at times. The agency that sometimes places an aide in our home so I can go shopping , danced around the issue of Alzheimer's with the aide to the point that she left him alone in the bathroom and told him to call her when he needed her. An hour or more later he had forgotten the conversation, she was deeply engrossed in her cell phone--and he ended up trying to get back to his chair by himself. Yes, he fell! He knows he has Alzheimer's and has no problem with the term. It does, however, bother him to be called extremely forgetful.

Great Article. Thanks. I took the liberty of re-posting on my Caregiver Blog, if you approve. Wanted to share it with my readers. The Clueless will always have something to say.

In some places, this is referred to as " person- centered language". You are not an Alzheimers patient, you are a person with Alzheimers, or cancer or autism.

Very useful message. Thanks for speaking up.

This is very helpful for understanding today's criteria about elder care and how to do the best.