Page 29 - Changes and Challenges

Dementia
Changes and Challenges
I resolved much of these problems at home by replacing all the old energy
efficient fluorescent lights with equivalent LED globes. They appear not only to
be much faster acting but provide a slightly brighter and more uniform light.

People have told me that people with Dementia don’t like mirrors. This is
often followed with some fanciful reasons they use to justify this belief. What
the issue is, is not the existence of mirrors but the placement of mirrors.

I find unexpected flashes of light to be highly distracting. Because the flash is
by its nature momentary, I can’t readily associate it with an object. I will often
spend a lot of conscious thought on ray-tracing to identify the likely source of
2
a flash. Most normal people would not need any effort to do this or more
likely dismiss the flash, but not necessarily so for people with Dementia. We
need more cognitive processing to do the same and therefore it may become
a conscious effort. This is a big issue for me when I see a ‘flash’ of light
reflected in my glasses from behind.

The reaction also depends on the environment and expectations of being in
that environment. Sitting at home, I would anticipate such events to occur at
particular times of the day. In that environment I have no problem in assigning
the cognitive effort to solve the puzzle. It I was driving, I would have different
expectations and generally dismiss such an event.

It is also worth noting that the technology used in modern cars has gone a
long way to minimise things like this occurring. Most cars will auto-dim
headlights, my driving mirror will auto tilt to reduce refracted light. Dashboard
lights auto-dim to adjust to ambient lighting.

Thermoception.
A couple of years ago I was preparing some food on the barbeque. I
remember dropping a cooked prawn back onto the hotplate, then picking it up
with my fingers to test. When I put it in my mouth, I realized it was hot. I
hadn’t noticed that the barbeque plate was hot when I touched it. I now
realize it takes me a bit longer to determine by touch if an object is hot or

2 By normal I mean people who are not yet diagnosed with Dementia.
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