Extreme Love: Dementia – Thursday 26 April 9:00pm BBC2
As one of the big retirement destinations for middle class Americans, Phoenix Arizona has also become a capital of dementia care. Louis visits the city in order to spend time in state-of-the-art care home Beatitudes and with home-based carers, whose love is tested by a condition that steadily erodes the personality and character of their partners.
At Beatitudes Louis meets Gary, a 69-year-old patient who thinks he is serving in the military and that it is his job to check the state of everyone’s teeth. Louis submits to a dental check-up, is introduced to two of Gary’s new resident girlfriends and spends time with Gary’s wife of 20 years, Carla – a woman whom Gary robustly denies ever having married.
In a suburban Phoenix bungalow Louis agrees to become carer-for-a-day to Nancy, a formerNew York model with a personality to match. He finds a woman who can no longer remember her way through a complete sentence, but also a husband who finds much to love in the glimpses of personality that still sparkle through the dementia.
Please find addition information on Extreme Love: Dementia on Louis’ Blog post: –HERE–
Previews -
David and his mother Gail
Once a dentist, always a dentist
Hi Louis. I think the Extreme Love show on Autism was the best thing I have ever seen you make and I have watched a lot of your shows over the years. I used to work with adults with similar conditions and this show certainly demonstrated how challenging it can be to care for such people and that effective progress can be made possible for those diagnosed with autism. I was very moved by the plight of the parents and was touched by the sensitivity displayed by yourself in the making of this programme.If everybody put this much effort into caring about one another how much better would the world be ?
I maybe dnt really understand what ur programms r all about but why dnt u do a reality kind of a show how single mothers do live in London or England with an autistic kids??? Thank u
Just saw the autism ep today.
Fantastic stuff.
About damn time you got your own show.
Louis always dives in , and just when it gets interesting he removes himself from the subject, he had a great chance to make an iconic doc in Israel but failed to reach the bar set by Broomfield and Herzhog in dealing with intricate elements, I still hope he continues making bland documentaries for the masses, but In my opinion at least, his best work was long ago.
Really looking forward to this tonight. Your documentaries have always been inspirational, provocative and engaging. Keep up the good work Louis!
Dear Mr Theroux. Our company are currently raising funds to support Alzheimers Society. Our challenge is to set the world record sky diving attempt on 5th July at Brakley Airfield. Current record is 130 jumps, we are aiming to do 210. The Paratroopers recently announced they are doing an attempt for their own charity on 4th june. PLEASE help us beat them and raise money for Alzheimers. Our links to sign up are http://www.doitforcharity.com/mgmadvantage and our donation site is http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/mgmadvantage. Could you tweet this? Could you put it on Facebook? Could you jump with us???? Dementia is a terrible illness and our target is £64,000. Please help us to help them make a difference. Tanya Sharp
Hi Louise, I have read about this programme and look forward to seeing it. We are working hard in the UK to improve compassionate, dignified care and support for people in the UK with dementia and those most important to them. I would urge you to look at the Frameworks 4 Change website and if you have time to talk to Andy Bradley his compassion revolution is just starting and will probably make the biggest difference to dementia care since Tom Kitwood.
Warm regards
Suzanne
Hi, love your programs, because they are so intimate with the subject, you lit, feel like you’re there yourself. BBC should give you more funding though and a permanent own show.
Hi Louis whilst i always enjoy your programmes i think the dementia issue should have been opened and investigated in UK – i own a home in Bury residential care but mainly my people and friends have some aspect of this terrible ageing illness. Care homes get such a bad press but no one ever comes and speaks to owners who are involved in the day caring of these people.
Thecare homes are not always at fault – if you understood the way councils pay for their own people in care it would be deemed financial abuse – if you saw the way they conduct their own inspections by taking away dignity of residents and the way CQC the governing body conducts its annual inspections is terrible – thats why the recent home where abuse occurred scored excellent when it was now proven not to be. i am not at all scared of speaking out especially about someone like fiona phillips who already has bias against care homes to begin with . – i know its fruitless really as bad news makes it – not good honest news does it
regards
Lynn Parsons 07740859206
Hi again
do you just go to the land across the sea of plenty because you get a trip their. it needs someone to speak to care homes like mine who will tell the truth – the UK is flawed and no one will speak because they are scared of the council who are just bullys playing with money that doesn’t belong to them – my residents have rights which is shunned when they enter care homes.
Lynn
Louis ive watched your programs since tv nation and i have to say the two most recent ones have been the most moving.
Plesse never stop.
I saw Louis’ touching programme on dementia and really want to say that I know of a treatment that has worked well in its only clinical trial and several laboratory models that have shown that it works on a list of underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer’s. It is called Colostrinin and I can send references to anyone interested. It is safe because it comes from milk, is cheap for the same reason (50p per day) and readily available. Tragically its development is stalled due to lack of money so I am seeking helpers to raise awareness of it. If anyone is interested please contact me via drasutton@gmail.com Many thanks.
Hi Louis,
Read the book “Contented Dementia” by Oliver James.
It will help you understand. Then contact Penny Garner at “SPECAL” in Burford West Oxfordshire she will open up the world of dementia. She is amazing.
Hi Louis,
I would just like to say i have watched most of your programs including the two new ones regarding autism and dementia.,.. they are all great to show what is happening regarding these subjects. I agree with the comment above as you can find the subjects here in the UK you do not need to go abroad especially for dementia. You are the only person to comment on dementia as a disease that not only impedes memory but a lot of patients can not speak. People think dementia is about people forgetting facts and family members but when dementia is severely applied it is people who have not spoken a real word in 1-2 years. This is what dementis really means and this is what the country (UK) needs to understand and get a grip of!!! My Nan has dementia and has not known people on the whole for 3 years… she has not spoken properly for 1 year… this is real love… family members visiting every day to a care home to make sure she is ok!! why do you not have that on television apart from it would not make good television!! This is real life for most families in the UK that live with dementia… why is this never shown… i thought you would have tried harder to expose this practice Louis!!
For Brian’s family, and perhaps some other patient families Louis met:
Some meltdowns can be severe due to Immature Adrenaline Systems Overreactivity (IASO). IASO is itself not a mental illness nor a component of one. However, autism, bipolar and other mental illnesses can set the stage for this condition to more easily occur. Even some people with no mental illness diagnosis can experience IASO.
IASO is a new, safer (no psych drugs) diagnosis and treatment regimine for these problems. Search for the book (or website) Hope for the Violently Aggressive Child by Doctor Ralph Ankenman for more information.
The dementia episode reiterated the difficulties my grandmother experienced with my grandfather and reminded me of the great stress she and my dad/uncle/aunt faced. I would really like to get in touch with John Vaughan as I thought he and his wife were very touching. If there is a way I could send them a letter I would be most grateful, though I understand there are much bigger priorities for them both/those involved in the programme. Either way, many thanks for a very poignant programme.
Hi Louis,
My Grandfather recently passed away, and he had a very severe case of dementia as we saw on the ’4th floor’ in Phoenix. Although sad the state he was in was entirely unresponsive and, I hate to say it, but lifeless. I wanted to thank you for showing the burden that is placed upon families, my mother in particular was giving up a lot of her free time to care for him, she carried on even when he was hostile towards her. I know she was more than happy to do so, but I feel they are very much the unsung heroes when we think of dementia cases The home he was in was incredible for dealing with dementia, and some real characters were in the home with him that made me chuckle at times. I felt you really captured the whole picture when it comes to this horrible condition, and the knock on effects it has on families and friends, and I am extremely grateful. Keep up the good work Louis, and thank you once again.
Kind Regards
Louis
without doubt the documentary about dementia is your finest piece of work. I think you handled each of the subjects in a compassionate and sensitive manner whilst giving us an insight in to the traumas of this devastating illness.
You highlighted brilliantly that often the people most affected are the loved ones “left behind” rather than those with the illness itself.
Hopefully a cure will come soon and we can all live without the pervading shadow that hangs over many of us.
thank you once again
Steve Parker
Congratulations Louis – the dementia programme was one of the most sensitively created, remarkably inspiring and incredibly thought provoking programmes I have seen. I sat with my sixteen year old daughter last night watching it, and we were both so impressed with the care taken in the making of this programme. One could not help but be humbled by the incredible stories all these sufferers had to share, and especially those too of their carers. Thank you for opening our eyes.
Dear Louis programme on dementia was brilliant. Think you need to get together with Fiona Philips and between you, you could conquer Alzheimers!
So many people are getting it. I think an online life-style questionnaire would be brilliant asking lots of questions about life-style, medications and diet. Then, with the right analysis of this data we might find a common link as to what is causing these plaques that clog up the brain. Too many people are getting it for it to be just bad luck genes!
Thank you so much for profiling this devastating disease. You are my hero!
I would love to see a Theroux documentary on mental health issues and care, either in the U.K. or the U.S. I think the empathetic fashion in which Louis portrayed the lives of those with autism and dementia would reflect well on this topic. It, like the two in his current series ‘Extreme Love’ is a little explored topic and would benefit from an intimate insight.
Hi Louis
Just watched your Extreme Love show on dementia and have to say I was very moved by it.
I just finished watching the program. I have worked n eldercare for 23 years. Your documentary brought me to tears. I have seen both sides the resident and the family struggle for “normalicy”I have found that humor is the best policy. Thank you.
Hi Louis,
I just finished watching your programme ‘Extreme love: Autism’ and was moved deeply by it. I have Asperger syndrome myself which is a autism disorder, but in my case not as nearly as severe as any of the portrayed children. I find you approached the subject and all of the people involved in a brave way and the programme has an an attractive integrity to it. Well done. Because even though Asperger syndrome is far less ‘worse’ than the cases that get portrayed in your programme, I still recognised myself in almost all of the behaviours that got captured and aired.
People with an autism disorder have a lot of emotions going on, and at the same time experience great difficulty in communicating these emotions to themselves, let alone to others. What shows as anger and aggression was for me the hardest part to watch in your programme. I recognised that fear in the eyes of others, in your eyes too. I have seen that fear. I have caused that fear myself. Unwillingly. Always regretting it. Always filled with remorse the minute I recognised it, but still not able to stop the rage out of shear fear that ran through me because of the complete inability to communicate.
I grew older, learned a lot, got wiser. Luckily never killed someone
To some extend I am even happy now.
And I am truly happy to see this kind of programmes aired, because I hope that people will have the heart to try and understand other people a bit.
Keep them coming, please!
Hi Louis,
the episode about dementia was incredibly moving. it made me laugh and it made me cry. I’ve never experienced it first hand but i feel more prepared now in case it ever happens. it’s so prevalent…
i’m so grateful you’ve managed to capture the humour in it without being in any way disrespectful.
Fantastic piece of work!
always a fan
Anna
I’ve just watched your programme on dementia on iPlayer, and felt quite disappointed by it. I don’t know why you chose to go to America to film – I think it would have been more appropriate to look at the provision we have here, especially as I felt we didn’t learn anything from the American examples – in fact it felt to me like old fashioned dementia care.
On the whole I felt that you viewed those people with a diagnosis of dementia as a different species from ourselves – referring to them as ‘cases’ – how would you feel about being referred to in such a way? I would feel demeaned and feel a real lack of respect for who I am.
I think that people need to think about the use of the term ‘sufferer’ which you used several times. The global usage of the term ‘sufferer’ is negative and lacks any real understanding of the experience of dementia, which is individual – full of a range of emotions, frustrations, joy, anger, pleasure, despair etc. People with dementia are people with individual personalities, as we all have. To refer to them as ‘dementia sufferers’ then is not only incorrect, but negates the range of ways of coping with the syndrome, which for some people can be positive.
I’m afraid that I didn’t feel that this programme was particularly respectful or insightful; a missed opportunity.
Wow, this might be the best doc of the lot.
Did well to not to get too sentimental or too irreverant.
Only the most stony of hearts would not have been moved by some the stories and Nancy and John’s relationship is a lesson in love for us all.
Review in full:
http://neonmessiah.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/tv-review-louis-theroux-extreme-love_30.html
Just finished watching your special on Autism and about to watch the Dementia, very moving, heartbreaking really.
I’ve always been impressed by the empathy and pathos Louis displays in all his docos, only trumped by the humour… man are some of the specials _funny_.. that Nicky kid was hilarious.
I wish your viewers would stop whinging about stuff not being set in the UK, its probabaly got more to do about budgeting and contacts as to where he bases his docos.
Just watched your show on Dementia. Here in Australia we have many care organisations that can help with in home care, many with government assistance, are these services not available in pheonix or are the services not promoted??
It was a very touching episode and brought tears to my eyes many times. i work in the aged care sector and deal with people in this situation everyday, memory loss is a devastating disease for all concerned. Great show..
Louis,
I am working with Dementia UK to launch their new campaign next month and we wondered whether you would be interested in supporting us?
Please can you let me know a way to contact you.
Thanks,
Nikki Peters
nikki@standagency.com
Hey, Louis, just popping in to say I thought the Dementia episode was amazing, one of your bests, and it really touched home.