ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the influence of the dementia process on both the sufferer and their partner. It provides case study examples of persons with dementia. The word dementia is used when there is evidence that the symptoms and behaviour of a person are a result of permanent brain damage. Insight into the symptoms that are caused by the dementia process can help bystanders, especially close family members to work through the behaviour changes in the person they loved. This 'awareness context' of the person with dementia is somewhat different from 'insight'. Insight is what is becoming impaired. Home helpers and other carers can often better understand the behaviour of the person with dementia when they have information about what the person has gone through in life. The personality of a person with dementia affects the behaviours. Persons with dementia slowly lose their bearing on present reality and end up living in an increasingly strange, different reality.
