social, health, political imagery through the lens of G J Huba PhD © 2012-2021
Been there, done that — for which I have great regrets.
It’s hard for everyone: the person with dementia, family, caregivers, healthcare providers. And everybody has to try hard to make the most of a difficult situation.
Do your part. Try to stop whining (something that becomes increasingly difficult as time goes by). Don’t take advantage of caregivers and family. You are not the center of their universe nor should you be.
[Click on image to expand.]
HHHhhhmmmm …….
I have no idea why I did not think of this title earlier.
Mind mapping is like dancing, grinning, creating, and having a light bulb go on in your head.
You’ve seen some of the videos of me developing a mind map. Watch them again.
Sit down at a table with your notebook computer or an iPad. Let a person with dementia watch you, ask questions, provide information. Try to incorporate some of their questions or information into a SIMPLE map.
Make sure your map is bright and you use pictures. You might even paste a picture of the person you are demonstrating the method to into the map. Keep the mind map SIMPLE and BRIEF
If possible, print the map in color and give it to your (new) mind mapping buddy.
Here are a few topics that you could use. You can think of many others for specific individuals.
Click on the image to zoom in.
On of the joys of making mind maps that get posted on Twitter is that you get to combine 140 characters with a map that can poke fun at some bozo in the US Congress or point flame at assholes violating human rights or making a point by joking around about something that is really dumb.
Doing so in a mind map is like drawing a political cartoon for someone like me who is artistically challenged not to mention “losing” the ability to be verbally quick.
My favorite targets include just about any current or past POTUS or member of congress, political candidate especially The Donald, US College sports teams that pay their coaches $10M per year and their players nothing, because the players as supposed to be getting their classes that they never go to and the degree they never earn as payment. I like to clobber current events, research, and public programs (or the lack thereof) that are just plain silly.
Mind maps as political cartoons. They work.
Click on images to zoom in.
and another previously published map.
One of the basic needs for humans is communication. Express yourself.
What happens when one or more of the basic tools of communicating (memory, speech, writing, vocabulary) goes down. You adjust. Express yourself and you feel better, live better, and help others live better. Worth a few hours to learn how to do this in many ways.
Click on the image to zoom in.
When you are “sick,” people come up and ask how you are. The stereotyped answer — if you want reassure them — is “fine.” With dementia and other major diseases, such a response is misleading and can lead to perceptions that the disease is less than your family is saying or that you are getting better or that it’s no big deal to have you untreatable, incurable, scary, and isolating disease.
I’ve learned that there are other things you can say to reassure people without over- or under-stating the problem and at the same time complimenting your family, your doctors, and other factors. I find one response especially effective. Click on the mind map to see my answer and the context and effects from using it.
Going out jogging? You probably stretch and bend and wiggle around and jump up and down before you start running. Warmed up enough? No. Do more. Finish up? Then cool down and start warming up for the demands of the aerobic bicycle.
What about your brain? Do you expect it to start up at 100% creativity, motivation, memory retrieval, and impeccable judgment? Do you think that double mug of coffee is going to get it running at full efficiency? Maybe a little warm up for your brain is a good idea with stretching and wiggling and jumping up and down. Then cooling off and warming up for the next project.
Makes a lot of sense to me. Makes even more sense since I have lived with cognitive impairment and dementia for a while. Of course, it made a lot of sense 25 years ago, although I would not have called it warming up the brain until fairly recently.
Some recommended warm up exercises. See mind map below. Click to expand.
I like to warm up (and cool down) with doodling, daydreaming, and programming guided imagery into my brain. I do all three simultaneously, use lots of color, and relative silence so I can hear my brain tick instead of Mick Jagger’s strut. Seems to help. A few of my doodles from yesterday are shown below. Crummy art or sketching: pretty good way to release some creativity into the stream of consciousness. There are lots of other things that might work for you. I’d try some and see if any help.
And if you do find something that seems to work, please share it in the comments to this post.
It had no idea what this was going to be about 20 minutes ago.
So I sat down and started with the title.
Click image to expand.
At the end my brain felt recharged. Amazing what a little meditation and daydreaming can do.
This is one of the exercises I do to warm up my brain for “exercise.” Think of doing something similar both before and during cognitive impairment. This is just like your legs. Stretch them first and move around all day to keep everything running optimally.
I have dementia. #Buzan-style organic mind mapping has greatly improved quality of life.
Each of these videos employs time-lapsed recording. 8 minutes of elapsed time reduce to 1 minute of running time.
The videos were recorded over a 4 week period during the summer of 2015. I started using mind mapping to manage my cognitive impairment in 2010 (after having used alternate forms of non-Buzan-style mind mapping) in my career since the mid 1990s).
I love the 8 ==> 1 time lapsing. It makes me look 8 times smarter!!!
Note that these videos originally appeared in a series of blog posts over a month. if you would like to look at the individual videos — which include an explanation of the video content and an expanded final map, please search on “Part 12” for a series of links to the whole set of original posts.
If you are so inclined, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.
The original version of this post can be found here.
I am not sure if my mind maps will look more odd to individuals who are very experienced in mind mapping or to those who have little exposure to them. As both my skill in mind mapping and my dementia has progressed, my mind maps have gotten more unique or “odd” as some may characterize them. The colors are getting brighter, the branches more pronounced, the fonts relatively larger and many stylistic elements are ones you probably have never seen before. The images … well … I spend a lot of time looking for very unique ones and sometimes create my own out of either my photographs or public domain pictures and an editor.
I think the maps are more useful because I view them partially as art and my hobby and my style is getting pretty recognizable. I “own” my mind maps psychologically which encourages pride which motivates me to use them more and more. The cycle is a positive one.
These odd mind maps address a key issue in cognitive impairment, dementia, and mental illness: LACK OF MOTIVATION. These odd maps and their creation motivate me in various ways to complete tasks. This fact is extremely important.
The video shows the process of creating the mind map. You can skip it if you would like.
At the end of all the work shown in the video, the first image shows a static version of the final mind map ….
and the second a simulated 3-dimensional version. Note that I personally rarely see any advantage in the 3-d versions and do not typically use them. But you might want to.
Click on the images to enlarge them.
Mind maps with “odd.” unique, creative, funny, silly, cute and weird elements capture your attention as a reader and as a developer of the map, they motivate me to keep working on an optimal way of communicating with the reader.
Think unique, funny, creative and even weird when you develop a mind map for others. You will accomplish more and they will have something to “read” that will grab their attention.
Or, just think the three letters F-U-N. If it is fun for both the writer and reader than a true transfer of information is possible.
When the topic of mind mapping comes up, most people who know anything at all about mind mapping ask how it works to increase and enhance memory.
The memory enhancing possibilities of the method are an obvious one for further study. Is the method memory enhancing? How much? Why? In what circumstances?
But there also many other things that might be asked about the method. Here are a few selected samples.
Is mind mapping useful because it uses the same psychological methods for focusing one’s attention as guided daydreaming and doodling?
Does mind mapping work because it uses the same psychological mechanisms as are employed in art therapy?
How much efficiency of efforts does mind mapping introduce into cognitive information processing? Behavioral information processing? Social information processing?
How is mind mapping related to one’s prior behaviors and the goals to capture them (autobiographical memory)? Current behaviors? Changing one’s behaviors for the better?
Are mind maps especially useful in describing and understanding positive emotions (joy, creativity)? Negative emotions (depression, anger)?
How might mind maps help us remember to perform activities of daily living (dressing, cleaning, personal hygiene)? Do they help us develop more efficient ways of performing these tasks?
The list of questions one can ask about how useful mind maps are, why, and through what mechanisms is very long.
Anyone out there working on a Master’s thesis? A doctoral dissertation? Research for an academic promotion? I would love to know what you are finding out.
Personally I suspect that mind mapping is best when done in concert with some form of structured daydreaming like doodling, employs many of the same psychological mechanisms as are activated in art therapy, greatly enhance information processing speed and accuracy, is extremely useful for documenting behavior and planning to change it, is useful in dealing with both negative and positive emotions and understanding one’s emotional state and reactions, and can greatly enhance the ability of those with dementia and other impairments to more effectively perform the activities of daily living.
What do you think?
Now go get some data and prove it.
Here is the same map in some alternate formats.
The BIG D — currently the most dreaded way to die in the world.
I occasionally get tweets when I write columns on living well with dementia stating that the writer will — if he or she gets dementia in later years — consider committing suicide. At times people imply that I should also.
I regard most of these arguments as emotional masturbation although I also know that some people will go through with such a plan. I feel very sorry for them and wish that we had a better mental health system to deal with their pain and confusion.
You saw your Mom or your Gramps suffer (or at least you thought they were suffering while they were causing work and other problems for you). It scares you, it enrages you that lifetime savings are wiped out and do not pass between generations, it messes up your own relationships with your own nuclear family. You feel powerless and guilty and angry and helpless. And very, very tired.
The BIG D your Dad and Grandmother had are becoming the little d. Treatments are being developed for all types of dementia causing conditions, and you can expect them to be available in the not too distant future of 10-20 years. Behavioral interventions can greatly improve quality of life. Treatment will get less expensive over time (and even less so if we nationalize Big Pharma for the good of the world). Improved housing, professional caregiving, education of healthcare providers to make early identifications of impending dementia, and cost saving measures make it easier and cheaper to have a continuing good quality of life while living with dementia. Yes, I am too advanced to probably benefit much from forthcoming huge changes in dementia care and treatment, but my children and yours will which is something to look forward to.
OK, you are sitting there saying this guy is full of shit. Not really. In 1992 I started two decades of evaluating and helping improve some of the most creative and innovative programs for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention funded by the US government. From 1992-6, I watched literally dozens of my friends and coworkers die of AIDS 20 to 40 years before their life expectancy in an AIDS-free world. In the mid-90s I had dozens of additional friends in their 20s through 40s with HIV/AIDS who had a life expectancy of a few years and a miserable death ahead of them. Then came the medical miracle of antiretroviral drugs. Almost all of the folks I was close to who moved onto the new treatment regimen are alive now 20 years later and living pretty “normal” lives. Many moved from being uneducated street youth to PhDs and program administrators and federal employees and teachers and parents. Yes, parents. And quite good ones. Also, good taxpayers.
The BIG H (HIV/AIDS) was tamed for those who could be identified early and were in countries where antiretroviral drugs could be made available for a reasonable cost within differing levels of national average income. Much more remains to be done to fully tame HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa, a continent ignored by the rich nations. But the tools are there and the money should be. Should the big governments of the world not be willing to make this happen, perhaps the big religions of the world who have amassed reserved of valuable property and cash could use their funds to solve these medical problems.
I have no doubt the BIG D can be tamed like the BIG H and that the same problems with sharing the costs for treatment in the developed and undeveloped world will occur. And I greatly doubt various political factions will want to spend the dollars needed for research and developing treatments and making them universally available along with lifestyle training programs to help prevent certain kinds of dementia.
Stop thinking about suicide if you get dementia and start thinking about electing politicians who know that the horrible diseases of the past and their somewhat milder versions of the present can be tamed far more rapidly if resources are turned into medical research and treatment rather than bombs and trying to control countries with different religions and peoples of different colors than your own. Elect someone who has the guts to take on the aggressive capitalists of Big Pharma and conservative governments.
And do not send me tweets suggesting that you are morally superior to me because you will commit suicide to save society money if you get dementia. I think that is VERY wrong.
The BIG D is going to be a disease that will be solved eventually. And you will have a milder and less lifestyle disrupting version than your grandparents and parents. Speed up the process of making these advancements by fighting to devote resources to the development of the solutions. Emotional masturbation that maybe you will commit suicide in the future to “save society the cost after it is helpless for me” is not doing a damn thing to solve the mysteries of the neurological diseases that cause dementia. Devote the later stages of your life to looking for solutions, not giving in and accepting misery for yourself and your descendents or thinking Donald Trump is going to solve your problems.
Dementia care and treatment is changing for the better in a manner that is far more rapid than the garbage you read about in the news channels on the Internet. On the other hand, the politicians who allocate public monies are being more stoopid about health issues than ever, a fact rarely stated in its full ugliness in the press.
Here is how I see the situation. Click on the mind map to expand it for easier viewing.
And don’t give up. It is not going to be as bad as it was for your grandparents and parents. And you have lots of technologies and treatment innovations to make your quality of life better.
And use the time you gain from the advances in dementia treatment and care to help speed the progression of the work to solve this and all other diseases.
These core clinical core criteria apply to all forms of dementia. To diagnose specific types of dementia originating from different conditions, additional criteria apply. For example, there are additional clinical criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the United States, for dementia a PHYSICIAN (AKA MEDICAL DOCTOR) has to confirm #1, #2, #3, and #4 as stated in the diagram. For branch 5, the expert needs to find at least 2 of the 5 stated changes in functioning. Biomarkers may also be examined during various stages of diagnosis.
DO NOT TRY TO DIAGNOSE YOURSELF OR A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER EVEN IF YOU ARE A PHYSICIAN. These clinical criteria need to be addressed by an independent, experienced physician, ideally a neurologist or a psychiatrist. That physician will need to examine the potential patient in person. If you question the diagnosis by the original physician, see another independent medical doctor to confirm the subjective judgments that go into diagnosing dementia.
Identifying dementia as early as possible may make it easier to control symptoms and productively prepare for the future. That is what happened for me. Seek the advice of a medical doctor. You need not be over 65 to have dementia. A skilled neurological diagnostician may be able to diagnose the problem decades before you are 65.
The author of this mind map is a retired psychologist living with dementia and does not have the skills or licensure to make a diagnosis of dementia of any form. This blog post and the mind map are not medical advice nor do they permit you to diagnose yourself or another person. GO SEE A MEDICAL DOCTOR if you have a question or concern about yourself or another individual and wish to obtain an expert diagnosis from an individual trained and licensed to render such a judgment.
The citation for the journal article giving the criteria is shown within the mind map that follows. The recommendations come from a large Workgroup on Diagnostic Guidelines for Alzheimer’s Disease funded by the US National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association and were published in 2011 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia in a paper written by G McKhann and collaborators.
Click on the diagram to expand it.
I ranked the first 9 superbands. After that, well they’re all tied.
I probably won’t remember this list when I get to late stage dementia but research and clinical observations suggest I will probably remember the music.
So, you remember this list [or Alexa will] and let’s party…
These are the MONSTER BANDS.
[Lynard Skynard should be on this list but I can’t stand the damn Confederate Flag thing: not an expression of independence but of continuing stoopidity.]
[Led Zeppelin should also be on the list but Jimmy Page’s behavior with a young teen should never be supported in any way.]
I love technology.
I love what technology can do to help you deal with dementia and other disabilities. And to live much better and WELL.
The New-Fashioned Way. Give it a try.
You have dementia or cognitive impairment. Your life sucks. Your quality of life is down from before your condition.
And …
Dwelling on losses all of the time is just pissing away time you could use to enjoy today and make your time enjoyable for your family, friends, and those who come in contact with you daily. Dwelling on loss all of the time is making your situation worse. Getting mad speeds up the fall.
Get over it. Focus on what you can do well today, not what you can no longer do. I can’t run two miles anymore or use aerobic equipment at the gym. I can walk a couple of quarter mile loops slowly with a smile, the sun shining on my face, nods and signs of encouragement to those running, and rest stops when I need them. AC/DC or the Stones or the Flecktones are blasting through the headphones.
I live well. You can too.
[And in case you wonder, Game of Thrones really sucks when you forget about being someone else’s image of cool like you used to, and get back to the work of having a great, productive, and efficient quality of life.]
The mind map of the day … Click on the image to expand it.
Well I don’t just post these mind maps in my blog so that you can gawk at them and admire (or not) the use of images, colors, and design.
The important thing is the INFORMATION, Dummy. And enhancing your ability to use the INFORMATION wisely and productively.
There are more than a few reasons why I pick these topics.
Fortunately I am willing to share my theory, logic, and applications for using mind maps intelligently, with impact, and with accurate content.
In my opinion, I live much better because I mind map. Even though I have dementia.
Click the image to expand it.
And have fun. I do. There is a lot to this mind mapping stuff.
Want to learn more?
Over on the left side are two images of the cover of my book. Select the appropriate one (contents are identical) for iBooks or Kindle versions.
Read the reviews. There are more for the Kindle edition than the iBooks one.
The book discusses updated versions of the posts in this blog, presents much original material, and contains studies I have conducted with these methods. Much of the content, and the integrating context, is not discussed in this series of blog posts.
<<<<<<<<——————————
you know it; I know it
[government and academia wish we did not know it]
![BIG GOVERNMENT RESEARCH [AKA TENURE TRACK RESEARCH] =](https://hubaisms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/big-government-research-aka-tenure-track-research.png)
I think that Buzan-style, organic mind maps are the preferred visual thinking tool that should be tried by people with cognitive impairment or dementia, as well as the general population.
Of course, not everyone will find mind mapping a natural thinking tool nor will be able to start using visual thinking methods until far into their brain disease or condition.
Given that, there are eight alternatives to mind mapping that I have tried and evaluated for use by PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA OR COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT.
I think that three — Sketch Noting as codified by Mike Rohde, Doodling as promoted by Sunni Brown, and Cartooning as practiced by The Oatmeal — can work quite well for some. I actually sometimes combine one or more of these three techniques with Buzan mind mapping and find the resulting mind maps to be even more powerful. When I don’t have the time to combine techniques manually through sketching, I try to make mind maps with “sketch noting” fonts or icons that are doodle- or cartoon-like.
My ideas as a mind map. Click the image to expand it.
It is very helpful to study the books of Mike Rohde and Sunni Brown along with those of Tony Buzan’s classics on mind mapping and visual thinking.
Note: I was diagnosed with a progressive neurodegenerative disease many years ago. I have found mind mapping and three alternatives have helped me enjoy life and compensate for some cognitive deficiencies.
View much more detailed discussions of these issues in other blog posts on this site.
Just in case you have to deal with cognitive decline and the Big D, have some tricks up your sleeve. The time to develop these is at as young an age as possible.
[These same skills will help you build a terrific career and have great intellectual and social accomplishments.]
NOW. Not later. And certainly not much later.
Click on the images to expand them.
Should you not have learned these techniques before, don’t give up because I did learn most of these skills while having cognitive impairment or dementia. Easier done earlier, but never impossible.
How else do you expect me to get the message out about the “real issues” in dementia care and some very low cost methods of assistance that may help some (or many) and potentially increase the period of independence and get away from stacking people up in hospital beds where their lives become very limited. As someone who lives with the problems I describe, I only have a limited period of time left for my brain to function well enough to get the message out, and I am going to use it as effectively as possible to make my messages stick in the minds of people with dementia, caregivers, family, healthcare providers, decision makers, those aging, those with other types of cognitive impairment, and other interested parties. Expect more shameless self promotion. Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am kind of proud of the fact that I want to shake up and expand your conception of what the problems are and what are some possible solutions most have never even considered.
Let’s do this together.
Hindsight …. [well you know that one].
Life comes at you … [you know that one too].
The GYST [pronounced gist and standing for Get Your Shit Together, or if you prefer Get Your Stuff Together] of it all is that you should get GYST before life comes at you at 100 miles per hour. Listen, I have the benefit of hindsight. And, I wish someone had sent me this mind map before I got the diagnosis.
<<<<<=== Over there on the left. Click on one of the book icons to obtain my new book Mind Mapping, Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia. Versions are available for Apple devices on the iBooks store and all other common devices on the Amazon Kindle store. There are 100s of essays like that in this blog post. And because I know the information is unique and valuable, I am charging about the same as others who write books on dementia or mind mapping. If you cannot afford to purchase the book, contact me.
Yeah, I know, shameless self promotion. How else do you expect me to get the message out about the “real issues” in dementia care and some very low cost methods of assistance that may help some (or many) and potentially increase the period of independence and get away from stacking people up in hospital beds where their lives become very limited. As someone who lives with the problems I describe, I only have a limited period of time left for my brain to function well enough to get the message out, and I am going to use it as effectively as possible to make my messages stick in the minds of people with dementia, caregivers, family, healthcare providers, decision makers, those aging, those with other types of cognitive impairment, and other interested parties. Expect more shameless self promotion. Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am kind of proud of the fact that I want to shake up and expand your conception of what the problems are and what are some possible solutions most have never even considered.
Let’s do this together.
I am going to present a series of mind maps with advice about how to prepare for possible cognitive decline.
GYST!!!!! (sounds like gist)
If you take my advice, give yourself a GMST (sounds like jimst) star.
Confused? Hopefully you are confused enough to study this mind map.
Then look at my next few posts and GYST so that you can say GMST.
[This post is an example of the “odd” sense of humor that can accompany dementia especially in the earlier stages. Personally it sounds pretty funny to me and I see it as a conceptual summary of Benjamin Franklin’s famous essay. But then again, I’m there. Hopefully before you face possible cognitive decline you will be able to say GMST and use modern technology and advances in the theory of visual thinking to deal with cognitive impairment and dementia, should you be unlucky enough to have to do so. GMST will help you be able to say “I have a good life” even if the Big D hits.]
[15 minutes later … I had been trying to recall from my memory the term for the symptom of odd humor. 1 minute ago it just popped into my head. FATUOUS speech and writing meaning silly and pointless. Aaahhh heck. That is just a sign of typical aging at least as defined by those under 40.]
<<<<<=== Over there on the left. Click on one of the book icons to obtain my new book Mind Mapping, Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia. Versions are available for Apple devices on the iBooks store and all other common devices on the Amazon Kindle store. There are 100s of essays like that in this blog post. And because I know the information is unique and valuable, I am charging about the same as others who write books on dementia or mind mapping. If you cannot afford to purchase the book, contact me.
Yeah, I know, shameless self promotion. How else do you expect me to get the message out about the “real issues” in dementia care and some very low cost methods of assistance that may help some (or many) and potentially increase the period of independence and get away from stacking people up in hospital beds where their lives become very limited. As someone who lives with the problems I describe, I only have a limited period of time left for my brain to function well enough to get the message out, and I am going to use it as effectively as possible to make my messages stick in the minds of people with dementia, caregivers, family, healthcare providers, decision makers, those aging, those with other types of cognitive impairment, and other interested parties. Expect more shameless self promotion. Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am kind of proud of the fact that I want to shake up and expand your conception of what the problems are and what are some possible solutions most have never even considered.
Let’s do this together.
You can hold the BIG D (dementia) in check for a while.
A long long while.
<<<<<=== Over there on the left. Click on one of the book icons to obtain my new book Mind Mapping, Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia. Versions are available for Apple devices on the iBooks store and all other common devices on the Amazon Kindle store. There are 100s of essays like that in this blog post. And because I know the information is unique and valuable, I am charging about the same as others who write books on dementia or mind mapping. If you cannot afford to purchase the book, contact me.
Yeah, I know, shameless self promotion. How else do you expect me to get the message out about the “real issues” in dementia care and some very low cost methods of assistance that may help some (or many) and potentially increase the period of independence and get away from stacking people up in hospital beds where their lives become very limited. As someone who lives with the problems I describe, I only have a limited period of time left for my brain to function well enough to get the message out, and I am going to use it as effectively as possible to make my messages stick in the minds of people with dementia, caregivers, family, healthcare providers, decision makers, those aging, those with other types of cognitive impairment, and other interested parties. Expect more shameless self promotion. Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am kind of proud of the fact that I want to shake up and expand your conception of what the problems are and what are some possible solutions most have never even considered.
Let’s do this together.
Just “Google It” helps me maintain quite a bit of my independence. I still remember the strategies to pull facts, entertainment, social contacts, history, news, and my own writings out of the composite global memory on the Internet.
This is quite different from the experience my mother and grandfather had as their cognitive capacity disintegrated.
How I developed the mind map. It took me about 34 minutes and the video is time-lapsed so that 8 minutes of elapsed time = 1 minute of running of time.
The final map in two variations.
<<<<<=== Over there on the left. Click on one of the book icons to obtain my new book Mind Mapping, Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia. Versions are available for Apple devices on the iBooks store and all other common devices on the Amazon Kindle store. There are 100s of essays like that in this blog post. And because I know the information is unique and valuable, I am charging about the same as others who write books on dementia or mind mapping. If you cannot afford to purchase the book, contact me.
Yeah, I know, shameless self promotion. How else do you expect me to get the message out about the “real issues” in dementia care and some very low cost methods of assistance that may help some (or many) and potentially increase the period of independence and get away from stacking people up in hospital beds where their lives become very limited. As someone who lives with the problems I describe, I only have a limited period of time left for my brain to function well enough to get the message out, and I am going to use it as effectively as possible to make my messages stick in the minds of people with dementia, caregivers, family, healthcare providers, decision makers, those aging, those with other types of cognitive impairment, and other interested parties. Expect more shameless self promotion. Doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I am kind of proud of the fact that I want to shake up and expand your conception of what the problems are and what are some possible solutions most have never even considered.
Let’s do this together.
This is Part 11 of a series of blog posts in which I show a video of the development of the mind map and then the final map. Do access earlier posts (each of which has a different video and issue addressed), please click on a link below.
1) Print a copy of the mind map on a magnetic sheet [yes, Virginia, available at most Big Box stationery stories for laser printers]. I would go home and put this on the refrigerator or stick it to the file cabinet in my office.
2) Print a copy of the mind map on a 4×6 file card. I would fold it [for privacy] and put it in my wallet.
3) On the first Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of December text a copy of the mind map to my iPhone. Repeat every week until I make the appointment.
I’ll probably do it when I receive the first text.
The patient will probably believe — at least before everyone else does the same thing — that this is a cool doc who really cares.
PWD = Person with Dementia
Here is my mind map for the day. Pretty mundane but necessary.
The video shows my development of the map; time lapse 10 seconds = 1 second. Done before I had my first cup of coffee or any medications for the day.
Final map that I will carry around in my pocket all day. I will make a lot of hand modifications to this during the day as things change and tasks get added, scheduled, or deleted.
Note to self: Next time have a cup of coffee first before running a video recording session on yourself.
This is Part 10 in a series of blog posts about how to make and use mind maps for people with dementia and everyone else. The earlier posts can be accessed through the links below.
