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Keywords: Dementia

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Senior citizen's road trip to dignity

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 27 February 2014
    2 Comments

    Woody surely has dementia, which would explain his certainty that a sweepstakes flyer stating that he has won $1 million is authentic. While one son would prefer to put Woody in a home, the other, David, agrees to honour his wish to cross state lines to claim his fictitious winnings. Woody is aware of his own dwindling physical and mental agency, and understands that the small gifts of dignity afforded to him by David are not small at all.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bumpy road trip to a remote community

    • John Adams
    • 29 May 2013
    7 Comments

    Patrick tells me where the road is bad and where the water holes and outstations are. If I miss one of his subtle finger movements and we hit a hole in the road too hard he grumbles. I feel Patrick and I have the start of a relationship. Sixteen hours in a Hilux will do that to two grumpy old buggers.

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  • MEDIA

    Puncturing Australia's cult of the mind

    • Zac Alstin
    • 17 September 2012
    25 Comments

    Half a million Australians have an intellectual disability and 600,000 are projected to have dementia by 2030. Yet our lives increasingly depend upon advanced cognitive activity, seen in the proliferation of online social networking, banking and shopping. Can the fullness of life really be encompassed by our immersion in the life of the mind?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The lighter side of dementia

    • Brian Matthews
    • 20 July 2012
    4 Comments

    Just when my friend was thinking to find a quieter place for this lost and distressed elderly woman while he worked out what to do next, she turned to him, her face alight. With one movement she opened her mouth, removed her denture and held it towards him. On the 'gum' was clearly inscribed her name and a phone number.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    My father's good death

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 21 September 2011
    3 Comments

    The day my father died I was at the beach. Strangely, that morning one friend and I had been discussing death. My phone had been switched off, but as I walked away at the end of an almost perfect day, I turned the little time-bomb on again. It exploded almost immediately.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Despite dementia

    • Various
    • 24 May 2011

    When you tried to walk through the wall you were still living at home. What did you see beyond the opacity of brick? You were so sure it would absorb you that moments passed before reality kicked in ...

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Losing and finding Dad

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 10 February 2010
    11 Comments

    Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. My family seemed happy enough, but when my mother died my father rejected his children. As I contemplated a reunion I wondered if he would recognise me. It had been seven years and he had recently been diagnosed with dementia.

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  • RELIGION

    The Church as advocate in the public square

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 February 2010

    'Tonight I want to reflect in light of the National Human Rights Consultation how we as Church can do better in promoting justice for all in our land. Full text from Frank Brennan's 2010 McCosker Oration, 'The Church as Advocate in the Public Square: Lessons from the National Human Rights Consultation'.

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  • RELIGION

    Patient autonomy and the doctor's conscience

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 September 2009
    4 Comments

    In Life and Death: How do we honour the Patient's Autonomy and the Doctor's Conscience? Frank Brennan's Sandra David Oration at St Vincent's Clinic, Darlinghurst, Sydney, 17 September 2009.

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  • RELIGION

    Euthanasia: doctors' conscience vs patient rights

    • Frank Brennan
    • 02 March 2009
    2 Comments

    The medical pledge to do no harm no matter what the cost effective benefits, and the conscience of the doctor are still key elements in any law which promotes good medicine. –Frank Brennan, addressing the Medico Legal Society of Victoria

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Dementia's wings

    • Kathryn Hamann
    • 09 December 2008
    1 Comment

    You are the city that recognised .. no temple but yourself ... those precious sparkling walls of intellect ... Shall I go down and trouble .. you with my touch? You as yet able .. to bar the gates

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When kindness takes over from love

    • Jennifer Sinclair
    • 07 August 2006
    1 Comment

    Harold is Jennifer's father. Over the last few years, he had gradually transformed from husband to carer. He tended to his wife's ever increasing physical needs 24 hours a day until, at 78, he could cope no longer with neither the physical demands nor the emotional assault.

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