David Barragan has nothing but praise for Gloria, his wife of 45 years.
"It's been a very great marriage. I call her the 'Rock' of the family," he told KCLU.
Barragan was a special agent for the US government. He was drafted to serve in the Vietnam war. Now, aged 70, he had been hoping to enjoy retirement with Gloria. Instead, he’s found himself as her care-taker, after she developed dementia four years ago.
"Her memory started going and it was just a devastating thing to see. And it came to a point where she just cried on my shoulder, I'll never forget. And she goes, 'you know what?' She goes, 'I don't know what I'm doing anymore'. So that was I was really sad to deal with," said Barragan.
He’s not alone. This one-day symposium called Dementia Beyond Drugs and Disease has brought together experts and advocates for those, like Barragan, who are navigating the realities of the disease.
Experts like Dr. Allen Power, who says we need to change our approach to dementia treatment and focus more on being proactive than reactive.
"I think we are intensely focused on the biomedical aspects of dementia. We're trying hard to find medications that can stop the process, and I don't think that that's a bad thing in and of itself. I don't believe there's a magic bullet," said Dr. Power.
"I don't think we're going to make Alzheimer's go away. We're mortal beings who are living for a long time and the body breaks down. Yes, I'd love to find something to slow the process down, but I think there's much more to be gained in reducing risk through public education, health initiatives, better social supports," he said.
"Alzheimer's is largely socioeconomic disease. If you are poor or if you are chronically stressed in life, you have a higher incidence. So we're putting it, you know, like Americans do - we don't prevent we just spend a lot of money trying to make things go away after they happen," said Power.
The executive director of non-profit organization Long Term Care Services of Ventura County Keith Gosselin says advocating for quality of life and quality of care is important.
"We are there to give a voice to people who oftentimes don't have a voice, literally. Sometimes they cannot communicate. They can't express what they really want. So we're there when it comes to dementia care," said Gosselin.
"Having these—not just recommendations—but regulations, in place that will really try to get them to be more proactive about the care of people with dementia as opposed to reactive, in which case then you're just what do you do? You know, you're waiting for somebody to come up with something to do, and hopefully it's the right thing," said Gosselin.
And for those like Barragan, who find themselves having to learn fast about the condition, navigating dementia is a huge adjustment.
"She was the one that had to pay the bills, hold down the fort, you know, take the daughter to school, deal with all the things that went wrong at the house," he said, and he admits that he misses her companionship.
"I miss my my Gloria, because basically, when they develop the condition that they're in, you kind of feel like they're not even the same person anymore," he said.
"It's like you have to relearn everything on who's this person that I'm living with now because their actions, their responses, their emotions aren't the same anymore. So yeah, it's like living with a new person all over again," said Barragan.
