Life Span Development

Question: Discuss about the Life Span Development. Answer: Introduction: There are few films that accurately portray Alzheimers disease and I believe Away From Her is one of them that has depicted the ravage of Fiona appropriately as a patient of Alzheimers Disease. The film effectively focused on the victim of Alzheimers disease, Fiona, and the neglected victim of the disease, Grant, her husband. The film revealed the effects of Alzheimers disease where the life of this loving couple was changed forever because of the disease. In accordance with the thesis of Erik Erikson integrity versus despair, Fiona was detached from the concerns of her life due to her disease that has been well portrayed in the film (Vaughan Rodriguez, 2013). I think the film positioned the nurse Kristy as a paramount character who has been entrusted with the responsibility of conveying a homelike and welcoming atmosphere for Grant to provide him with some support and advice at his time of despair. She was the one for which the rigid and sterile environment of the nursing home was presented as homely for Grant as he finds some relief while conversing with her about Fiona. As a nurse, I would have primarily focused on the aspect of communication with Fiona as Alzheimers disease affects the communication ability of a person as they become forgetful. Meadowlake Nursing Home is a long-term care facility in the film which I think has been well suited to the mental condition of the patients residing there, suffering from Alzheimers disease. Long term cares and there atmospheres play a critical role in distorting or enhancing the recovery speeds of the residents and the film has diffused the generalization of the nursing home provided gestures for the generation of the notion of home (Casado-Gual, 2015). Supporting the concept of Erikson and his sense of mortality, the nursing home well supported the psychological condition of Grant as he lost his connection with his spouse (McAdams Zapata-Gietl, 2015). The policies of the nursing home as depicted in the movie were ideal for making it a home for its residents on their arrival. The Meadowlake Nursing Home had a no visitor policy for within the initial thirty days of the admission of the patients for allowing them to easily adjust to the new life. I agree with Madeleine and her explanation of the policy to Grant that the policy was implemented to make the patients of Alzheimers disease realize why they have been left there as they are forgetful and this makes them happy. I believe this policy gives a perfect supplement to the nursing home to describe it as a home and as Kristy said, the policy also makes it easier for the staff members to cope up with the patients. I believe that Fiona was not putting on a charade or acting out for punishing her husband as she was markedly confused in the film and her environment and her conversations were filled with platitudes. Although she was suffering from Alzheimers disease, she was absolutely composed and did not drop her modesty with periods of lucidity which confused her husband to believe her disorder as a charade. Eriksons theory well describes the condition of Fiona as he believed maintaining integrity in situations of Alzheimers disease adds up to the process of integrity (Sacco, 2013). The behavior of Fiona reflected this theory and I, being a nurse would have assisted her in maintaining her quality of life by fostering a safe environment. References Casado-Gual, N. (2015). Unexpected turns in lifelong sentimental journeys: redefining love, memory and old age through Alice Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountainand its film adaptation, Away from Her.Ageing and Society,35(02), 389-404. McAdams, D. P., Zapata-Gietl, C. (2015). Three strands of identity development across the human life course: Reading Erik Erikson in full.The Oxford handbook of identity development, 81-94. Sacco, R. G. (2013). Re-Envisaging the Eight Developmental Stages of Erik Erikson: The Fibonacci Life-Chart Method (FLCM).Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology,3(1), 140. Vaughan, M. D., Rodriguez, E. M. (2013). The Influence of Erik Erikson on Positive Psychology Theory and Research. InPositive Psychology(pp. 231-245). Springer New York.