"My Mom Has Been Gone for A While, But She's Still Alive..." Communicating as a Child of a Parent with Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for a significant number of dementia cases in the United States. The disease causes devastating physical, psychological, and relational losses for the person suffering from the illness and those in the person’s social and familial networks. Children of parents with the disease are particularly vulnerable to mental and physical illness as a result of stepping into a caretaker role for the parent, even when the role is more informal in nature. In this case study, siblings Michael and Avery discuss their family’s experiences with their mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. Through their conversation and flashbacks to previous interactions with family members and strangers, Michael and Avery highlight family members’ common struggles with the illness, including identifying as children of a parent with Alzheimer’s, coping with the impact of the disease on their family, managing their mothers’ private health information, reacting to others’ perceived insensitive comments about the illness, responding to stressors, and seeking support.