Authors: Zlata Felc, Brina Felc
Background: With increasing live expectancy the number of people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia is rising. Therefore, many children will encounter dementia among family members, their grandparents and great-grandparents in particular. They benefit from grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's visits. The latter are mostly pupils in primary schools without accessible educational program in dementia knowledge, and their view
of dementia is under-explored. The purpose of this article was to establish pupil's view of people with dementia.
Case Presentation: We report a case of a 7 year-old second form pupil, great-granddaughter of great-grandfather with moderately advanced Alzheimer's disease who is living in elderly home, and she visits him frequently. To gain an insight into this girl's view of dementia in attendance of her mother the face-to-face interview was used. Girl's responses revealed her view of dementia that a) dementia means forgetfulness, and it comes because brain
in someone old get sick, b) people with dementia forget becaue of their illness, and not on purpose, c)people with dementia like to touch grandchildren, and sometimes they feel uncomfortable because of this, d) in primary school teachers don't speak about dementia, and schoolmates never speak about their relatives with dementia.
Conclusion: This case study highlights the importancy of preparing children for what to expect from a visit of a person with dementia. Efforts to raise an awareness about dementia should be expanded especially in families with older members. Additional, this case study supports an introduction of simple programme of dementia education to primary schools to help pupils to understand what it's like to live with dementia.
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