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2/2 “He was moved from his house, full of his art all around him, to a magnolia coloured room with a bed and a window. His cognitive functions rapidly declined from then on. I spent the following three years observing the whole system and seeing many of the flaws in it. Every time I met him, his mental state was far from that ‘zen’ state from before. He had entered the system on a conveyor belt, where nurses and care staff are working extremely hard for their fee and had very little or no time to engage on a one to one basis. The system is wrong as it’s too heavily built on a medical model of care. It should be half medical and half social. Things badly need to change. Inspired by my friendship with Leo, and my desire to make a difference, I’d like to plant a seed about Alzheimer’s the same way that he inspired me; through art.”
“I opened the doors to the first ARTzheimer’s exhibition in July 2014 in St. Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street. Leo passed away exactly one month later.”
Credit to: Siobhra O’Reardon Farrell (13)
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This illness has and will touch the lives of many of us. Help Artzheimer’s bring about positive changes in the Alzheimer’s care system.