It is worth having signed clothes and a card with an address in case you get lost and forget where you live. Because Alzheimer’s is tricky.
Mrs. Basia is ready to go out – to the theater or her favorite cafe in Powiśle. Age – 81, neat: lipstick, hair, nails. A liaison officer in the Home Army, a model in Moda Polska, the wife of five husbands, including two foreign ones. The owner of an exclusive boutique in the Netherlands and a historic mansion in Poland. But today Mrs. Basia is not going anywhere. It’s Friday, at the nursing home she just got bread and butter for dinner, cucumber and leather mackerel. He no longer owns a flat in a tenement house, money, antique furniture or valuables. And she can’t remember why.
Forgetting is not a normal manifestation of old age. It very often heralds the first stage of Alzheimer’s disease. But it is also often ignored by loved ones. After all, an older man has the right not to remember something, and he is in a mood. Especially when she is an individualist, like Mrs. Basia. Before memory problems hit her, she lived with fantasy and panache. Before the war, my parents had pharmacies and were well off. As a 14-year-old girl, Mrs. Basia will take part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, she would be one of the first models of Moda Polska – shapely, pretty and tall for those times. – Only girls from good houses were with me – she emphasizes. He remembers this part of his biography exceptionally well. Then there will be several marriages that will end in divorce. After many years spent abroad, Mrs. Basia will return to Poland. He will buy and renovate the manor in Kuznocin. Then she will stay in Anin for a while, and finally anchor herself in her mother’s apartment in Powiśle, where in her youth she ran with insurgent reports.
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The first signal that something was wrong came five years ago. Mrs. Basia stopped dealing with everyday life: cleaning, washing, shopping. She was helped by social welfare carers. They quit after big quarrels. The old lady was unbearable. She was still forgetting something, she was angry. They didn’t understand the reason. – A patient with Alzheimer’s has a behavioral disorder syndrome – explains Alicja Sadowska, a psychologist from the Association for Helping People with Alzheimer’s Disease. – These are severe and difficult to control symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, attempts to escape, travels to places from childhood. Babysitters are terrified of such pupils. Almost half of the patients show aggression. It happens that an old man puts his hand under his skirt or undresses for no reason.
Ms. Basia will go to a specialist who will find Alzheimer’s disease only a few years after the first symptoms. Her loneliness will contribute to it – children abroad, no family at home. Neighbors from Powiśle have always considered her an eccentric, a person difficult to live with, so they did not enter into her lonely life. They knew so much about her: she runs to a nearby cafe every day, in the heat or frost, for a cigarette and coffee. Two years ago, her son Matti, who lives in the USA, alerted Lucyna, a friend in Warsaw: – The mother has always been independent, sometimes unbearable, but now she tells on the phone that she no longer has an apartment. And it was supposed to be her security in her old age. Could you please check?
– I sold them, did I do something wrong? – Mrs. Basia will welcome Lucyna with an uncertain smile. The apartment is missing many things: paintings, furniture, incl. valuable antique chest of drawers. There is a mess in the documents. Ms. Basia does not remember anything, she cannot explain how the transaction took place and what actually happened.
The buyers of the apartment, Mr. and Mrs. T., a married couple before 60, met Mrs. Barbara thanks to her friend from school. It is not known why the old lady signed a notarial deed for the sale of her apartment – almost 180 square meters, first floor in a pre-war tenement house. The buyers paid only PLN XNUMX. PLN, and in installments. There is a provision in the notarial deed on personal easement for the benefit of the current owner. She will be able to live until her death.
The neighbors will help her notify the judiciary. However, the prosecutor’s office will not find the buyers of the premises to “exploit the mistake” of Barbara Ł. And refuse to prosecute. – You can fight in a civil court – consoled her.
Ms Basia will take more decisions that have consequences. In her favorite café, she will “donate” 20 zlotys to Magdalena N., who will accept them together with Waldemar S. They were supposed to offer her a place in a retirement home at the other end of Poland, in the Kłodzko Valley. This house does not exist yet. The proceedings in this case – extortion of 20 zlotys – will also be discontinued by the prosecutor’s office, although the “recipients” do not deny that they accepted the money. “Barbara Ł. Testified that she did not remember exactly what she had donated the money to, did not remember the details of the conversation, the arrangements for transferring her to a nursing home. She does not remember when she was supposed to be transported there and on what terms she was supposed to stay there “- will justify the prosecutor.
The terrified son will bring to court for his mother’s incapacitation. From the forensic-psychiatric opinion: “The growing disturbance of the function of criticism means that she is not able to properly assess her financial situation, she is unable to rationally manage her finances, she falls victim to people who take advantage of her helplessness.”
It can be considered that Basia’s case is special – she had no family with her. But the situation of people with Alzheimer’s disease in Poland supported by their relatives is also catastrophic. Research by the Alzheimer’s Disease Association shows that 50-70 percent of the patient’s caregiver is his spouse. Often suffering from various ailments of old age himself, he rebels against the situation he finds himself in. Because it is a disease that turns the lives of loved ones into a nightmare.
“The father cannot accept my mother’s illness and her behavior. He yells at her and gets attacks of frenzy. Mom is crying and her eyes are becoming more and more afraid. Despite many translations and conversations, nothing reaches my father. We cannot deal with it. We explain to him that the further stages of the disease will be much worse, but he does not listen and does not want to use the doctor’s help for himself. This situation accelerates the progression of mom’s disease. We are afraid that one day the attack of father’s madness may end badly. He could hurt mom. What to do? PLEASE HELP!”. “My father (73) constantly talks about his childhood, confuses events. He tells incredible things about himself, about his parents, and often cries. In a moment he becomes aggressive, demolishes the apartment and threatens with suicide. His closest ones are enemies, he doesn’t want to see a doctor. I don’t know who to turn to for help, what to do? ” – these desperate letters are written to the association by people from all over the country. The second group of carers are children and relatives of the sick. In Poland, the dominant attitude is that parents should be looked after personally until they drop, literally. And when the children can no longer cope, they try to get help from the state. And here they collide with the wall.
Two years ago, the European Parliament adopted a declaration making Alzheimer’s disease a priority of health policy in EU countries. By 2050, the number of patients is expected to triple. In Poland, there will be about a million people with dementia, of which 600 are Alzheimer’s patients. National strategies are being developed in the EU countries. In Poland, there is a tragedy instead of a strategy.
– In 2003, we organized a meeting of the health committee and the social policy committee of the joint chambers of the Sejm and the Senate devoted to Alzheimer’s disease, says Sadowska. – No strategy was created. For many years in Poland, there was only one social welfare home for people with Alzheimer’s, where they were admitted on the terms set out in the Act on social assistance (the inmate pays up to 70 percent of his benefit). Now there are two. In addition, there are a dozen or so day care centers and day homes all over Poland. That’s all for 200 patients. – The state does not give the sick any choice – says Alicja Sadowska. – There are private centers, but you have to pay there yourself. Therefore, many patients end up in ordinary social welfare homes, which are not prepared to care for residents with Alzheimer’s disease.
The situation is particularly bad in Warsaw. Estimates of the social policy office of the capital city council show that there are about 21,6 thousand people in the capital. Alzheimer’s patients (with other dementia – 36 thousand). There are 12 (!) Places for them in the only specialist care center (this is the best form of help for those who do not want to put their relatives in a nursing home, but cannot look after them during the day because they work).
Maciej Jaworski looks after his 76-year-old mother. – I leave it in the common room around 8.30 am on my way to work and pick it up at 15.30 pm. The head of the company for which I work agreed that I should do some of the work at home. The common room is better than the visiting babysitter – mom has contact with people. Every morning my mother says, “I’m going to work.” She liked this place.
Grażyna Rachtan looks after her 81-year-old mother. She was disobedient and looked clumsy for a long time. Initially, she treated herself with herbs and said that sclerosis did not hurt. Later she became loud, vulgar, and even offended God. It was really hard at times: she lost the keys, fought, robbed us several times. It even happened that she left the house in the evening and a few hours later the police found her dancing in the street. Now she has started to come to terms with her illness, she is calmer. In the common room recommended to me by my friend, my mother saw sick people just like her. At first she was reluctant to the center. But I told her honestly: I need a break from you. However, I can see an improvement and how important the day-room is for her.
Ewa looks after her 82-year-old father. “Father himself noticed nine years ago that he had memory problems. I didn’t suspect it might be Alzheimer’s. Once my dad used to walk for a long time, he rode a bike. Even when he became ill, he could not give it up. However, he had signed clothes and enough awareness that he would take out a piece of paper with an address when he got lost. There has been a lot of deterioration over the last year. Now he is not even alone in the apartment. Almost everything had to be removed slowly from his room, there was still a bed, an old bookcase and an armchair. My father has been going to the day-room since October. He thinks he’s going to work. He only once asked: “Is my pension so low that I have to work?” He’s used to it so much that he doesn’t know what to do with himself on Saturdays and Sundays, and he asks, “When are they coming?” (“They” are all the relatives in the father’s world whom he cannot distinguish).
However, thousands of caregivers have to organize help for the parent at his place of residence. – The situation is dramatic. And it has not changed for many years – says Alicja Sadowska. – There should be a specialized day care facility in each district.
In September 2010, the Alzheimer Center was opened in Warsaw, consecrated by Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz himself. President Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz triumphed. – It is the first such center in Poland, we believe even the most modern one in Europe.
The media wrote about the European standard for Alzheimer’s patients. Single and double rooms, hydro massage, rehabilitation, chaplain, hairdresser. The monthly cost of one seat is PLN 4600. The inmate gives up to 70 percent. of their pension, the family pays an average of PLN 200-300, the city contributes the rest. Immediately after the opening, 77 out of 90 places were occupied by retirees from the nursing home, some of whom (the smaller one) actually suffered from Alzheimer’s. – In fact, it is a well-equipped retirement home, not an Alzheimer’s Center. Life has missed the original concept, believes Alicja Sadowska, who has participated in the planning of this center for 15 years.
Three weeks after the opening, Mrs. Basia from Powiśle, suffering from Alzheimer’s, was placed in an ordinary nursing home for the elderly. There was an empty seat there. She quickly fell into conflicts. Until now, she was able to take care of hygiene herself. Now she can’t end up in the hallway toilet. So it starts to get wet. They put on her diapers. Mrs. Basia cannot stand it. It’s just a shame – a model with pampers! So what, he’s retired.
Author: Jerzy Danilewicz