Health & Healing // Breanna Coyne

Discussion // Topic 1
Due Date // Feb 7-14

Much To Young

Introduction

The insights I gained about the experience of caring for a parent with early dementia is
the struggle to cope and adapt to an unexpected role while entering the big world of adult
hood. The documentary “Much to Young” is about young adults becoming a primary
caregiver to their parent battling dementia at a young age.
In the documentary there was four families; Patricia who was diagnosed with late-
stage Alzheimer’s at 55, Maria who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at 50, Peter
who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at 57, and Francois who was diagnosed with
early onset Alzheimer’s at 51.

Some back story on the documentary; “Much To Young”

Patricia (55)
Patricia was a mother of three children, one girl and two boys. Patricia’s husband left her when
the kids were babies but returned when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s to be her primary
care giver. Patricia’s daughter is 27 years old, struggling to work and take care of her mother at
the same time. Patricia is experiencing server impairment in memory, processing new
information, and recognition of time and place.

Maria (50)
Maria was a mother to three daughters, one of her daughters moved away for school and her
other two daughters were still living at home. Marias husband was her primary care giver. Maria
had a hard time walking down steps and remembering certain tasks and orders. Marias daughters
took her places even though it was hard on them, trying to make the best out of the situation.

Peter (57)
Peter has one son who is in grad school. His primary care giver is his wife and son. His son finds
it difficult to be productive in school knowing that his father is struggling. His son feels like he
doesn’t focus on school enough, which makes him feel guilty, but he also feels like when he is at
school, he should be helping with his father. Peter is challenged when problem solving,
completing day to day tasks, and forgets certain tasks by not replying to a command.
Francois (51)
Francois has a wife, and his daughter is 13 years old. His daughter is trying her best to adapt and
be there for her father, but it’s hard on her. She used to be very close to him, they use to do
everything together, she was daddy’s little girl. Francois is not motivated and struggles with
anxiety and depression. He doesn’t understand what’s happening to him and he doesn’t want to
continue in life. This is hard on both his wife, and daughter. Francois does not want to be
remembered by someone who has Alzheimer’s disease.

Final Complying Question

What insights did you gain about the holistic experience of caring for a parent with early-
onset dementia?

Here is a table of the positive and negative aspects of family caregiving through a family
caregivers perspective. In the table below, are values that a caregiver may experience when
caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Consideration to Positive Aspects Consideration to Negative Aspects

Realization Family’s Centre of attention
Acceptance & Trust Physical and Emotional Health problems
Patience Mood Changes
Beliefs Exhausted
Communication Stress

When Caring for a parent with early onset dementia no one talks about how hard it is on the
children. In the documentary there was a child as young as 13 experiencing a primary
caregiver role to her father battling dementia. Along with this, there was a woman who was
27, and a man who was 25.

Positive Aspects

Communication
It is important to communicate with your family members when being a young primary
caregiver. In the documentary there was a family that would switch off nights and days, so
their mother was never alone. They had a weekend meeting to figure out the schedule for the
following week. This communication gave each primary caregiver a break when it was needed
for work and other things. This communication was extremely important to ensure that their
parent always had one on one direct care.

Realization
This is a positive aspect from a caregivers perspective because to be able to accept and enjoy
what time is left with a family member battling Alzheimer’s, you have to be able to realize
and comprehend the situation. In the documentary it was noticeable that the primary
caregivers of their parents were struggling but realized that there will be good days and bad
days. To cherish the good days with their parents was important because they realized that
there aren’t many good days left.

Acceptance & Trust

To be able to accept a holistic situation with someone you love and then to further adapt to
your new life is a challenge in itself. An example of this trait shown in the documentary is
when Peters son was in grad school trying to take care of his father. He had a hard time doing
both, and it was until he accepted the fact that he could do both is when he began to cherish
the good moments with his father. It also took acceptance from the primary caregivers of the
documentary to let their lives be filmed. To trust the producers, to raise awareness about
Alzheimer’s disease, and show this vulnerable part of their lives with the world.

Patience
In the documentary it was noticeable that each primary caregiver showed patience towards
their parent. It takes people struggling with Alzheimer’s disease a lot longer to do simple
tasks. In the film it was noticeable that the primary caregivers had to continue to repeat
themselves because their parent had a hard time following a certain command. After repetition
every day, over and over, it’s easy to get frustrated. However, because of realization,
acceptance, and trust the value of patience eventually came along. All of the primary
caregivers in the film showed excellent patience, even though at time it was difficult.

Beliefs
To believe that those with dementia can still live a meaningful and fulfilling life. In the
documentary this was shown when the primary caregivers shared their beliefs on film about
how they feel and connect with their parent. In one scene there was two young girls taking
their mom to get her nails done. They believe that by doing the typical monthly outing’s that
they use to do with their mom can still happen. Even though it’s harder to take their mom out
of the house, this is something she enjoys doing, this is them living a meaningful and
fulfilling life.

Final insights about “Consideration to Positive Aspects”

Consideration is given to the extent to which the caregiver's work is motivating and satisfying,
producing favourable results, and enhancing people's lives (Wang et al., 2022). My final
insights that I gained from this documentary about positive aspects involve all values stated
up above. Without communication, realization of the situation will be hard to see. Without
realization, you won’t be able to accept or trust one another. Without acceptance and trust,
you won’t have patience to give care. Without patience, it will be hard to believe in the good.
I realized that as a young primary care giver, there are important grieving stages that you have
to work through to be able to see the good and believe that things will be okay. Having a
parent battling dementia when you’re working though the transition of life is a struggle that
no one should have to experience.

Negative Aspects

Family’s Centre of Attention

For a young primary care giver, it is difficult to go to work, school, and complete daily tasks
when your family is the centre of attention. I believe this is a negative aspect because the
documentary shared primary caregivers feeling guilty for having to do normal teenage things.
Many will say it’s easy, but to juggle a million different things, and having to be in multiple
places all at once is difficult.

Physical and Emotional Health problems

At the beginning stages of coping with a parent who has dementia, there are physical and
emotional health problems that many primary caregivers go through. Depression, anxiety, stress,
and balance. Many caregivers in the film explained that they felt like they weren’t doing enough
for their parent. This put a burden on their physical and emotional stress.

Mood Changes
In the documentary not just the parent with Alzheimer’s is experiencing mood changes, but the
family caregivers are as well. There were many examples of the parent with dementia happy, and
then their mood just changes. As this was happening, it was noticeable that it was like a down
wording spiral of changing events. As soon as the parents mood changes, anxiety hit, and the
primary caregivers mood was changing as well. As a primary caregiver this is hard on the body.

Exhaustion
From sleepless nights of worrying, not understanding why this is happening to their parent,
trying to work and go to school at the same time, exhaustion was a component shown in the
documentary that overtook the primary caregiver life.

Stress
The stress of everything falling on a young primary caregivers shoulder is something that was
shown in the documentary. An example of this is at the end of the documentary when the
daughter wrote a song about her mother battling dementia. She handled her stress through music
and shared her song with all the people who were in the documentary, and it brought everyone in
the film to tears. She wrote about what her life would be like without her mother, wondering who
she would be and if life would be easier.

Final Insights about “Considering Negative Aspects”

Due to the detrimental effects on their physical and emotional health, carers are frequently
referred to as the “invisible second patients” (Tan et al., 2021). My final insights about
considering negative aspects involve a young primary caregivers mental health. All of the
insights that I choose relate to the physical and mental well-being of someone who is going
through the steps of losing someone physically and mentally. The hardest thing in my opinion
about Alzheimer’s is the fact that the person your parent may turn into isn’t them. They aren’t
there mentally, and seeing this happen can cause exhaustion, stress, mood changes etc.) I know
this because my great grandfather developed Alzheimer’s when I was 10, and it was very hard on
me being so close to him. I didn’t understand why he didn’t remember me and why he wasn’t
motivated to do the things he used to be able to do. I had so many questions, I remember being
mad at him. Now, if he was here, I wish I could apologize for being so upset.

References

Tan, G. T., Yuan, Q., Devi, F., Wang, P., Ng, L. L., Goveas, R., Chong, S. A., & Subramaniam,

M. (2021). Factors associated with caregiving self-efficacy among primary informal

caregivers of persons with dementia in Singapore. BMC Geriatrics, 21(1).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-01951-8

TVO Today: Current affairs journalism, documentaries, and podcasts. TVO Today | Current

Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2023,

from https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/much-too-young-feature-version

Wang, J., Li, X., Liu, W., Yang, B., Zhao, Q., Lü, Y., & Xiao, M. (2022). The positive aspects of

caregiving in dementia: A scoping review and Bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Public

Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.985391