New technology puts you in a sufferer’s shoes
SAM VOLPE tries a tool that offers a glimpse into the world of a person living with dementia
DRINK less alcohol. Drink more water. Quit smoking. Eat healthily. Stay active. Stay social. Engage your brain.
All ways to try to reduce your chances of getting dementia, according to Alzheimer’s UK. And I’m going to be trying them all. (Well, I don’t smoke anyway, which feels like a bonus!)
Why? Because, like many of us, the idea of developing dementia terrifies me.
Perhaps it shouldn’t. I often write of ways in which incredible charities and clever doctors, nurses, researchers are coming up with creative and genuinely pioneering ways of either mitigating the condition or – some day, perhaps soon – finding a cure.
But last month I tried out a truly disorientating virtual reality experience and was left with a sense of real terror.
Age Scotland has developed a VR simulation that can give someone an idea of what experiencing some of the cognitive decline associated with dementia might be like. It’s not the real thing – I imagine it’d be very hard to temporarily impair things like memory in VR – but it helps to demonstrate what losing mobility, sight and hearing might be like, and how that impacts on daily life.
Mike Douglas, director of social enterprise at Age Scotland, is a key force behind the VR simulation.
He told me: “Everybody who has dementia experiences dementia in a different way. And you can’t say ‘this is how dementia will be’. But what this can do is give you a real sense of the disorientating impact of having dementia.”
And Mike’s not wrong. Guided around a VR environment set up like a care home, the Age Scotland team talk me through what might happen – tinnitus, sight loss, disorientating noises just for starters – and frankly it’s difficult to cope with.
Never mind if your cognitive faculties were slowly, or quickly, eroding.
Like most, I’ve watched loved ones become ill – and subsequently die – with dementia. So I know what I experienced, thankfully, barely scratches the surface of what the brutal disease can do.
Both my grandmothers went through this, and I have seen the toll this has on carers and loved ones. Putting my head inside a virtual reality headset didn’t show me what dementia is like, but it reminded me how intensely traumatic it must be.
So, though I was in the plush surroundings of Age UK Gateshead’s top-notch new base in Gateshead High Street, when I put the VR goggles on, I was taken not just into a simulated care home living room but also given the smallest insight into what this awful illness does.
When your hearing and vision goes, disorientation is remarkably quick, never mind if you are experiencing further cognitive decline associated with dementia.
And what did I learn? Well, it won’t surprise anyone to learn that backing the work incredible charities, health professionals and researchers do is more vital than ever. The other thing that stood out, though, is how tools like this really do help you to understand something that is almost impossible to understand without going through yourself. So, on that front, I am sure this kit will be an incredibly powerful teaching tool – so perhaps we can make life better for people living with dementia, too.
The truth though is that I hated it. And going forward that’s going to inspire me to, where I can – perhaps even through articles like this – nudge the dial, raise awareness, and raise cash to support those working on one of the biggest medical challenges of our age.
Consider donating to charities including Age UK (and Age Scotland), Dementia UK, the Alzheimer’s Society or Tyneside-based Dementia Matters and Equal Arts.