A photo of a daughter's reassuring messages for her mom with dementia has gone viral, igniting a global conversation about the heartbreaking condition, the BBC reported.
Written on a whiteboard, the touching notes were photographed by a visiting doctor who then decided to share them online, compelling others to share how they help those closest to them suffering from dementia.
These symptoms include memory loss and difficulty with thinking, problem-solving, or a language.
Since it is progressive, the symptoms of dementia gradually get worse and worse as more of the sufferer's brain cells become damaged.
"I'd not seen anything like it before in thousands of house visits," he told the BBC. "It's caring, reassuring and sensible — it's just such a simple idea."
The reassuring messages were placed in the woman's sitting room, directly in her eye-line where she can always see it.
As well as assuring her mother that she is "okay," the dementia patient's daughter wrote,
"Your meals are paid for."
"You are not moving."
"No one else is moving."
"Keep drinking, it will help your memory."
"You don't owe anyone any money."
"You haven't upset anyone."
The physician said he had only intended for his tweet to reach "a few interested colleagues" but never expected other people to react to the post the way that they have.
"[It's] clearly touched people's hearts around the world," he wrote in a follow-up tweet.
"I did similar for my mother," one user wrote. "She had a moderate head injury at the beginning of her decline into dementia. I also put notes into the pockets of all her clothing."
While another shared they did something similar for their own mother and added they also wrote down the day and date on her notes to "help with her dislocation in time and place."
Dr. Grimmer's picture was also shared on Reddit where it earned over 113,000 up votes and even more stories from users who have dealt with people suffering from dementia.
This comment came from Hailley, a nurse from Canada, who went on to say, "It was sometimes tough to reassure him. We had to call his children to talk to him a few times. It was hard to see him so upset."
"They are still adults who know when they are being treated differently," she said.
Speaking to Dr. Grimmer's photo of the reassuring whiteboard, Hailley said it "addresses what gets asked the most [by those] in long-term care."
h/t: BBC
