Transcript of the Sight Loss and Dementia: Stuart and Grace Film

Transcript of the ‘Sight loss and dementia: Stuart and Grace’ film

Grace: “I think we’ve got narrow band, not broad band.

“If you’ve got a broken arm or a broken leg or you’ve got a scar or something visual that people can relate to but you move into the world of mental illness, and it says dark and dingy and unknown so people don’t know how to approach you.

“You’re not different! Your mind might not be the same as it was but you intrinsically are who you ever were.

“Stuart being the crabby wee B that he’d been all his days! Just cos he’s got Alzheimer’s, doesn’t make him any better!”

Stuart: “Again, one of my pet hates that I’ve said to you: ‘Can-you- understand-me? Is-it-all-right-if-I-talk-like-this?’ Well, my answer to them is, ‘You-can-talk-like-that-if-you-want, but you sound like a bit of an idiot!’”

Grace: “Or the alternative is to go, ‘Grace, how is Stewart?’, or ‘Oh Stewart – this Stewart?’ The Stewart that’s actually on my arm just now? Yeah. ‘How are you Stewart?’

And I do mean I do, I get offended by it, that they presume that once given diagnosis, you have turned into this strange person that’s lost the will to communicate and the only way that they can communicate is through me.”

Stuart: “Yes, memory is part of it but it’s not all of the illness, and that’s what a lot of people have to know. That there are other… I want to say ‘side effects’, but it’s not – I’d just like to say, it all comes together, the visual impairment - the Alzheimer’s and the dementia attachment, it’s all- the one illness, it’s not three different illnesses, yeah.”

Grace: “We don’t call it an illness, it’s a condition which we live with, and we say ‘we live with’ because we do. It’s our illness, it’s our condition.” Stuart: “It doesn’t affect my eyesight per se as I can still read, write, and watch television perfectly normally, but it affects my perception of things.

“If I’m out walking I don’t know how far the cars are in front of me or what speed they’re going at, and if I’m stepping down from a step, I don’t know how deep the step is. Things like that, and my perception of these things.”

Grace: “I think that we had a bit of difficulty at the beginning with Stuart’s diagnosis and the GP, the awareness is coming out now, but sometimes even just when you go back in, if the doctor would just say, go back into his notes and say, ‘Oh, we’ve been trying this…’ Just again, to reinforce something that’s happened before – just to keep us in the loop.

“If you keep sending people letters, we lose letters, we forget letters. But sometimes people, like your doctor saying, ‘Oh, I notice we’ve changed your tablet last week,’ or going to the optician and going, ‘Well, you know Stuart, we checked your eyes last week and they’re absolutely fine, they’re the same as they were two years ago.’ Verbal confirmation.”

Stuart: “That’s all that is.”

Grace: “And to give people, anybody that’s got any kind of issues with health, mental or otherwise, to give them dignity because the first thing that you lose is your self-confidence.

“The world changes overnight. You go from being Mr and Mrs average to ‘Oh, he’s got Alzheimer’s, oh it’s a shame isn’t it?’ ‘Oh, it’s a wee shame, he’s got Alzheimer’s.’ And you can hear the whispers, and all the rest of it.

“But we’re still the same people and to reinforce the fact that you are worthwhile. You do have something to offer, and Stuart does have a lot to offer. “

[ENDS]