Thanks to the O’Connor family, we had a burst of media coverage on the issues of love and intimacy in late life, particularly in the case of dementia. Scott O’Connor told a local reporter that the family was so happy that their father had found love just two days after moving into an assisted living facility. The national media played it as potential scandal. See Fox News coverage for a typical scandal sniffer. But then NPR did a story. And the New York Times. Sure, they still called people with dementia “patients.” But overall, these were some of the best pieces on dementia that I’ve see/heard in the media to date. And the courage of the O’Connor family is remarkable — they were unafraid to be happy for their father/husband, who after 17 years with Alzheimer’s, has found a bit of peace. Dr. Piero Antuono and I did a call-in show on Wisconsin Public Radio a few days later. I was so heartened by the callers, who clearly saw the humanity of the people with dementia and seemed hungry for a more supportive and understanding world in which to experience this disease(s). Perhaps we’re turning a corner of some sort?
