Dementia

Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather a name we use to describe a group of conditions around impaired brain function. Symptoms include forgetfulness, an altered ability to interact socially, and other challenges with one’s thinking abilities. As our population has aged there has been a marked increase in the prevalence of dementia.

Sharing in the burden of a loved one is far from easy. This can be especially so with dementia as the personality of our loved one seems to fade away along with their memory. How do we walk with someone when their memory of the history we share evaporates, and we grieve the loss of the person even as they live? Many times, those caring for loved ones with dementia feel as if the person they once knew is no longer there.

We can find peace in the knowledge that even in dementia our loves ones are persons created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Their value is not determined by how they think or remember, and what they can or cannot do, but rather by who they are, and as Christians, who they belong to. They are created, loved and redeemed by God. Their value and worth are in relation to him, rather than from any external factors.

As dementia takes hold of a loved one some Christians also worry what this means for a person’s faith in God. Here we take comfort that even as our bodies and minds wear away in this broken world and we may begin to forget him, he is a God who always remembers us. (Psalm 115:12).