019: Humanizing Alzheimer's Dementia – A Caretaker's Perspective With Vivian Ngang

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Over 2  million people lived with dementia in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015 and numbers are projected to nearly double every 20 years, increasing to almost 3.5 million by 2030 and 7.6 million by 2050.* </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My late grandfather died of a broken heart, but he also had mild symptoms of Alzheimer’s dementia. That was my first encounter with this disease and I remember as a kid, struggling to understand why a grown man will forget things so easily or walk out of the house without knowing where he was headed, and getting lost. I remember most people calling it “Old age” and we were made to understand that it was a right of passage for every old person, and that made me even more scared to get old. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our community has normalized the ideology of defining people’s lives by the disease they are battling - in this case, Alzheimer’s Dementia. We tend to easily forget that these were humans - family, friends, etc - behind the disease. So this week, we discuss Alzheimer’s Dementia from a caretaker's perspective. We will be having Vivian Ngang (aka Aunty Vivian) discuss her experience while taking care of her lovely mother (Mama Lucy) who battled this disease until her demise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This episode is heavy, emotional, and educational, and sheds more light on how we can help our senior relatives encountering this disease. Hope you learn and pick some key points from this episode – remember to share within your circle.</span></p> <p><em>* Data From <span style="font-weight: 400;">Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI)</span></em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Meet Our Guest :</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vivian Ngang is a Registered Nurse with a Doctorate degree in Nursing and a Master's degree in Nursing Science. She is a Clinical Nurse Manager in one of the hospitals or one of the units at the Veterans Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. She has been married for 25