Bleeding holism

Holistic, integrated and 

person centered care

 is what happens when 

 respect and empathy 

bleed.

i c u

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

tears	tears
Avatar image "I see me through your eyes."	te ar s

Wired: Avatar 2, 3 and 4

ICU - Intensive Care Unit

Image: http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/Ek5C0NhnNlA/maxresdefault.jpg

"ICU" - Technical Haemorrhage & Chlorophyllic Clots

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

ICU - Intensive Care Unit

GIS - Geographical Information System

Angling for Ideas

The Angler by Paul Klee (1879-1940, Switzerland)

This is just a rock pool I reflect	So is this, even before Pollock just a single drip in the ocean
Fishing for praise	Here we trawl, as we do we maul. Why owns the holistic ocean? Does it bleed, does it leak? Abs-orbs all angles? just?

Image source: http://en.wahooart.com/@@/8LT48X-Paul-Klee-The-Angler

Joint Strike Care F-4(5)

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual(?)

Social Reflections on Power	Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II

group - population

Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II

Image source: https://www.f35.com/assets/uploads/downloads/13661/9777287314_9a87af14da_o__medium.jpg

 

TO: EU -omics research community; if you are seeking a holistic approach for personalised medicine...

The relevance of Hodges' model as a resource in 21st century health care and research can be found within personalised medicine.

This is in addition to the need to assure holistic bandwidth within existing health care delivery, when it is person centered care that is the concern. Personalised medicine brings with it further challenges as it emphasizes the scientific, the inevitable reductionist work can potentially increase the distance between the humanistic and the mechanistic. The working document from the European Commission -

Brussels, 25.10.2013 SWD(2013) 436 final COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT. Use of '-omics' technologies in the development of personalised medicine
http://ec.europa.eu/health/files/latest_news/2013-10_personalised_medicine_en.pdf

on page 7 we read:

The figure is instructive as it shows that a holistic approach is needed to fully appreciate the challenges and opportunities presented by personalised medicine. 

'Holistic' is a much maligned word, with its fuzzy, new age connotations. Especially when the word count = '1'. Another related document also picks up the holistic call:

IMI2 will deliver tools, methods and prevention and treatment options (directly or indirectly) that will progress the vision of personalised medicine and prevention. Through providing the framework required to support collaboration between scientists, regulators, HTAs, patients and healthcare providers, IMI2 will ensure that research is translated into implementable solutions to current healthcare challenges. Solutions that are not purely focussed on the development of new medicines, but that provide a holistic personalised healthcare package as well as maintain people healthy and productive through out their lifetime. Reclassification of diseases based on their root cause and not symptoms will help addressing unmet needs even in areas where a range of options exist but patients do not respond, because their symptoms are misleading therapy choices.
[ IMI - Innovative Medicines Initiative ]

Outline Strategic Research Agenda for a biomedical research public private partnership under Horizon 2020: (draft) The right prevention and treatment for the right patient at the right time. 08 July 2013http://www.efpia.eu/uploads/Modules/MCMedias/1373296554546/IMI2%20Strategic_Research_Agenda_v%208%20July%202013.pdf

On page 10:

A sustainable healthcare system is a holistic one in which the patients are responsible for their wellness and quality of life; physicians, therapists, nutritionists, community carers, and all other actors in the value chain are motivated to this goal; delivery of care takes into account patient beliefs, values and both rational and irrational behaviors; the care is affordable to both public and private payers and promotes health; sustainable businesses can thrive; and the education, prevention and management of chronic conditions are aligned to achieve this goal.

The focus of these documents is -omics and the development of new medicines. By its very nature this research, data and knowledge lies deep within many sciences: new sciences no less. This recognition of the need for holistic approaches and perspectives is still very encouraging. As the first document on personalised medicine notes, future treatments must be from "bench to bedside". We can equate this as "mechanistic to humanistic", but only as long as the patient in that bed is a person and not just viewed as a diagnosis with an associated -omic profile.

Have a look also at the figure on page 7, the medical innovation cycle. As discussed previously on W2tQ patient safety needs situated awareness and holistic perspectives.

My original (and seemingly incomplete) source:
http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleId=1339313

Visual representation of nature - ASEH2014

I subscribe to quite a few mail lists including the H-ENVIRONMENT list at H-NET.MSU.EDU. The post below caught my attention being always intrigued by diagrams and how they are applied. Caleb Wellum's post - copied below with thanks - stood out, not so much for the panel and being there (San Francisco!) as the theme. I've added links plus an image below and edited slightly:

Dear Colleagues,

I am organizing a panel about the visual representation of nature (and the politics of different representational forms) for ASEH 2014. My paper will examine H.T. Odum's energy diagrams in his popular 1970s works "Environment, Power, and Society" and "Energy: Basis for Man and Nature."
Michael Clemens will discuss nature documentaries at the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s and 1970s and Duygu Kasdogan will be doing a visual ethnography of biofuels. We are looking for a 4th person to round out our panel. Your paper can be about any period, region, or form of visual representation.

Sincerely
Caleb Wellum
PhD Candidate
University of Toronto

Learning theory: an A3 poster

Source: Richard Millwood - A new learning landscape

As the poster demonstrates and Millwood's notes explain learning theories are very varied and yet a constant in terms of teacher education. What is less permanent is the significance of learning styles, which are included above. I wonder if there is an A3 poster addressing that question? A different treatment would be needed, one that might for example show the ups and downs of the literature? What theoretical underpinning has been proposed for learning styles? What are the connections to forms of literacy? I had a brief search, but found nothing to compare with the above effort.

Richard Millwood has provided a great resource and is seeking feedback. The pdf version is very readable on my laptop in HD; plus there is a CMap tools version with links.

It seems blended learning really is the hybrid? It is traditional in face-to-face sense, but can be found in multiple combinations within Millwood's formulation. Is there a place for gestalt learning - a further link with learning styles?

I'm subscribed to a Vygotsky list that is very active; most of the posts pass like e-leaves in the wind-e, a case of info overload.

Vygotsky has a place above:
it is a small place.
So it looks like there really is a lot to take in. Oh joy!

'Holistic reform of education' in Jordan (an eastern dose of serendipity)

View from The Citadel, Amman 23 April 2013

Yesterday morning I arrived back safe and sound from Amman in Jordan, via Istanbul through to Manchester and full of new experiences and learning. I say 'safe and sound' because travel to the region is clearly not a matter of routine given ongoing events. Checking governmental advice in the UK it becomes a question of personal evaluation as was the unexpected trip to Colombia in 2011. Once the non-trivial decision is out of the way ... Jordan's nursing and educational communities provide a truly remarkable welcome and experience. Not only that, but the kingdom of Jordan and the people have so much to offer in their culture, history, hospitality and engagement.

Returning on Thursday from a full day's trip to Petra - amazing! - I asked for an English language paper to read at the hotel before leaving for the airport. I was provided with a copy of The Jordan Times to accompany a cappuccino^*. On page nine Mona Smadi,^# Asst. Professor, Al Balqa Applied University) wrote an opinion piece on Holistic reform of education. The opening sentence enabled my brain to reconnect with my legs (although I would have gladly walked back through the valley):

A holistic perception of reality means having a vision of the context of the constituent fragments and thereby gaining a clearer perception of the reality in its totality.

Prof. Smadi's focus is children's education and curriculum reform. The overlap between children's education, the professor's concerns and nursing is not limited to how curricula are designed and who owns them. Is, for example, the curriculum centered on the student as an individual nurse, or child? If nurses are to be able to integrate their learning and effectively negotiate the emotional and ethical spaces they find themselves in then when is this deeper thinking to start?

Petra 25 April 2013

Not surprisingly there was a lot of talk about this at the JNC conference. The theory - practice gap is not just alive and kicking there is an echo off the seemingly disparate walls. Given too the debate in the UK about student nurses spending time as a health care assistant before starting their formal nurse education. The word applied in the title of Prof. Smadi's university's is interesting. We are accustomed to applied mathematics, ethics, energy and of course applied nursing research and many other examples?

What of applied nursing - does that make sense? Or is there a circularity of sorts in nursing applied? I will check my notes as this point was raised in conference regards to evidence based care and evidence based practice.

Prof. Smadi's referring to a 'clearer perception' can also be extended to recognition of patterns, contexts and situations that are 'hot' in how they relate to values.

(There are a couple of points to add here which I will get too).


There was another serving of serendipity to add to that at Le Meridien, soon after rejoining the land of the virtual I came across the UK Department of Education's Preparing for Adulthood initiative on twitter. If you read the brief article by Prof. Smadi you will see how the two are closely related. Do lifestyles and family life today for many compromise the ability of families to teach moral values to children? As noted in the text this then becomes a critical role for education. In westernized cultures is this one of the qualities referred to in the saying of 'spending quality time' with the family? An acknowledgement of a deficit?

Source: http://www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk/

Vital and complex work in two senses. On the one hand cultures try to understand themselves; and on the other, they seek to understand the other others out there: now not so far away. The patterns that are realised be they mosaic, prayers, celtic knot, tartan, languages, landscapes - rock cut architecture - sculpture; these patterns work, that is 'make a difference' by virtue of both the detail and the whole.

"Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock ..." UNESCO.

^#If I have not used the proper name and title I will edit this accordingly asap upon advice.
 
^*Why not an Arabic coffee? Well I had one the day before. What can I say... It was different in the preparation, being an observation as in so many cultural patterns (tea). I would like to think I will have another one day. The key thing is I did not necessarily want to have the capability to run to the airport at 11pm, or back to Petra for that matter.

Manet & the art of nursing - never unresolved: (and The Francis report)

Yesterday I travelled to London for a nurse related meeting and used the opportunity from 8pm - 11pm to take in the Manet exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Brilliant! It is a great event. There really is no comparison apart from the very high resolution close examination that our technology makes possible; but then that is a difference experience, a different purpose.

Manet's work at the RA includes paintings that do appear unfinished. Areas of the canvas being unresolved brings home the relationship and dependency of the artist with the subject, and the artist's approach to portraiture. Manet was quite demanding on his subjects apparently and while not completely averse, he did not routinely rely on the new opportunities that photography afforded. Here are some thoughts from the Art Fund website:

'Summer' or 'The Amazon', by Edouard Manet

Manet was a great risk-taker and critics of day rallied against his inconsistent approach, as you will see many of the works seem 'unresolved' or 'unfinished' but one of Manet's great skills was this ability to stop painting at the right moment, and it is this technique which gives the works a sense of movement and life.

Manet once said to his friend Antonin Proust, 'I must be seen whole. Don't let me go piecemeal into the public collections; I would not be fairly judged.' This exhibition, which brings together the largest selection of works by the artist to be exhibited together in a UK museum, is a great opportunity to judge Manet's extraordinary talent as a 'whole'.

In nursing we are accustomed to impatient patients. Many though have no choice but to 'sit' and 'lie'. They are static, not able to walk or run away.

Unconscious patients - we speak to them: redrawing the outlines. Searching verbally where we cannot go, reaching for the centers of personhood. We sculpt them back to their optimal health. Sometimes the brush strokes are urgent, sometimes we improvise with touch.

All the time an ideal: a portrait of care. No matter how busy we are basic nursing care should never remain unresolved.

That part of the canvas is always completed. The outline is integrated. The horizon, foreground, middle and background may be sketchy in the extreme cases, but the real mission critical bases are covered.

What we should never countenance, collude, or indirectly sanction are the cutting of those bases.

If we do the work of art is not just unfinished: it is corrupt.

The Francis Report

Anagram graphic c/o Wordsmith

Manet's 'The Amazon' from: Reproarte.com

HealthTap: Invited to add their widget... I asked a question...

No doubt it was a bulk email, but I received an invitation from HealthTap to add their widget here on W2tQ. The widget provides the means to access their service, that of putting questions to medical experts.

I have minimized the side bar content, stripping out buttons and other media paraphernalia and yet suitably intrigued I asked a question - ;-)

Q. Is there a conceptual framework that can help

 assure holistic (physical - mental, social) and integrated care 

that is also person-centered? 

Fourteen hours later news of an answer duly arrived by email:

Holistic Medicine
I believe that Holistic Medicine, when properly practiced, assures all of that. For the principles delineated by the American Holistic Medical Association see http://www.holisticmedicine.org/content.asp?pl=2&sl=22&contentid=22

Also see http://www.abihm.org/general-public


I greatly appreciate Dr. Randy S. Baker's response and the above links. This is helpful in several respects despite not exactly being the answer I was hoping for.

The answer is itself holistic in a sense in wrapping the question up in an organisational wrapper. That's a safe response, with medicine in there for wholistic measure. Who ever said medicine is reductionist! Judging from his profile holistic medicine is Dr Baker's forte.

Also interesting in the answer is the way the hook in the question was deemed to be the reference to 'holistic' and not the conceptual framework element.

Another point in Dr Baker's reply that reflects on Hodges' model and the health news media in England (UK) next week* is the bit about when properly practiced.

The adoption of Hodges' model is no guarantee of 

person-centered, 

integrated, 

holistic care.

Although the term conceptual framework (Hodge's model !) is not given in the answer: assure is.

What ever conceptual framework (care model, care philosophy...) is adopted to deliver health care, they must contribute towards the assurance of high quality care - that which ultimately positively engages the patient, carer, family and communities.

My question still remains and is usefully extended, passed to the above organisations.

So does the AHMA and the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine have a conceptual framework that helps support their holistic objectives and assurance of care? I will contact them to see if I can obtain a further response.

Thanks again to Dr Baker and HealthTap.

* The Francis Inquiry Report is anticipated on Wednesday.

'Holistic confrontation' Gadgil et al. - a useful construct for H2CM

The possible explanatory utility of what I've termed holistic bandwidth is an ongoing prompt for me to study Hodges' model as a conceptual space, or series of spaces. In the literature recently I discovered Gadgil et al. who explain what they term holistic confrontation in their paper:

Chi (2008) has characterized three kinds of student misconceptions that increase in their representational complexity from false beliefs to flawed mental models to incorrect ontological categories. This framework suggests that different kinds of cognitive processes and instruction may be differentially effective in facilitating conceptual change for a given level of representational complexity. We hypothesize that as the representational complexity of the misconception increases, so does the amount of transformation needed to rectify it. Specifically, we hypothesize that conceptual change at the mental model level requires knowledge revision to the interrelations between the features of the prior knowledge, which is different from revising individual false beliefs or reassignment of a concept to an ontological category. Furthermore, we propose that instruction that focuses the learner on revising systems of relations of the misconception, what we call “holistic confrontation”, should be more effective in facilitating change of a flawed mental model than instruction that focuses on revising false beliefs or the type of ontological category. p.47.

One of the more specific applications for Hodges' model I see and in need of demonstration is case formulation, or case conceptualization. This could extend from a general counselling, long-term medical condition self-care management level through to collaborative case formulation in formal psychological therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy and cognitive analytic therapy.

Gadgil et al. use a diagram test of the circulatory system with two instructional conditions for subjects: compare or explain-diagram. The introduction, method, design and six hypotheses in this paper comprise an interesting approach for due consideration here.

Gadgil, S., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Chi, M. T. H. (2011). Effectiveness of holistic mental model confrontation in driving conceptual change. Learning and Instruction: 22, 1, 47–61.

The Enormous Theorem meets The Enormous Conceptual Framework

with Best Wishes for the Season and 2013...

Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model is not a theory of health and social care.

It can however encompass the conceptual space that comprises not only health and social care, but the lived experience of individuals, and the existence of corporate and political entities (notably policy).

So while mathematicians have The Enormous Theorem, in Hodges' model we can at least reflect on what might be the enormous conceptual framework.


Prize awarded for largest mathematical proof. New Scientist, Sept 10 2011, 211, 2829. p.5.

The Bigger Picture - Hockney: Hodges' model 4 dynamic perspectives

In the decades to follow the patient, the carer, the health and social care professional must all be dynamic. All must be capable of movement - that is taking in several perspectives. As always composition is vital. So is choreography. As Hockney indicates the picture comprises both ordinary perspective and reverse perspective.


If static, found only for a moment: an assessment, plan, evaluation. A snapshot. Then moving a-gain.

Ever seeking the dynamic.
 
Acknowledgement: David Hockney


My source:
'The mass media has lost its perspective'.
David Hockney, The Financial Times, Page 11, October 27-28, 2012 

Image source:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-bigger-picture

Additional post:
http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/bigger-picture-david-hockney-ra.html

Self-care: The Long Answer (Ack. HSJ)

Here is another item from the HSJ:

"There is often a Berlin Wall between formal and informal caring environments both in the NHS and in social care," he says [Alex Fox, Shared Lives Plus]. He argues that patient care needs to be de-institutionalised.
"If we are going to get anything from all the effort and heartache that has gone in to the NHS reforms, CCGs need to take a holistic view of a person, like good GPs do, and understand that a range of factors go in to someone's health and wellbeing and it is finding models that fit personalised and self-care."

Helen Mooney, (2012). The Long Answer, Health Service Journal supplement (Long term conditions). 28 June. p.1.

Staying with the vertical axis of Hodges' model there is something beyond the delineation of INDIVIDUAL and GROUP (POPULATION) that this axis performs. It bisects the horizon of external reality that is frequently differentiated into what is HUMANISTIC and what is often described as MECHANISTIC. If not these terms then the humanities and the sciences.

From a mental health perspective and taking the above reference to 'institution' literally we can reflect upon how the Victorians sought to standardise provision of care for the mentally ill with the asylums. This was a scientific and political solution to an interpersonal and social problem. Institutions continue to be disempowering, in physical and psychological care. In a way this Victorian solution is still ongoing. On the journey from institution, to community, to home, to self... there is still a long way to go.

The system created to the mechanistic right within the model was custodial. As far as society was concerned the people there were forgotten. A community within a community was re-created. The person, the individual was lost and we are still trying to find them. Progress has been made and can be mapped across Hodges' model. As one example how has the student nurse's learning experience changed over the decades?

That INDIVIDUAL-GROUP axis, the red line in the figure is the Berlin Wall that we are still trying to tear down.

There is another view on this which I'll save for the future.

A World Record for Health Care: The 4 minute reflection

Of all the things that can be done within 4 minutes one of the most significant in the history of sport is undoubtedly who would be the first to run a mile in under four minutes:

In health care four minutes is both an age and an instant in someone's health career.

If we took four minutes to reflect upon a person's care across the care domains what difference might that make?

Just one minute per care domain to help deliver - personalised care, self-care, carer support, integration, health promotion and how to stay well. ...

In healthcare we are constantly seeking GOLD.

Wherever you are have an amazing Olympics!

Book for Review: Risjord's - Nursing Knowledge - Science, Practice, and Philosophy

In order to put Hodges' model on a more theoretical and practical footing (especially as part of an extended project) I approached the publishers of Mark Risjord's Nursing Knowledge: Science, Practice, and Philosophy. Wiley-Blackwell have kindly forwarded me a review copy of this book.

My preoccupation with nursing theory, practice and informatics could form the basis of a multiple choice question:

Having an earnest interest in nursing theory, practice and informatics is:

a) a grand academic and intellectual enterprise (you're a historian, journalist and futurologist).
b) a sign of our times for ALL nurses (doh!) this is the 21st century after all.
c) a contradiction in terms.
d) a sign you are informationally overloaded, trapped in the gap.

Seriously, the effort to understand nursing, informatics and retrofit theory (conceptual spaces, threshold concepts...?) to support Hodges' model needs to be philosophically sound - rigorous. This book will help.

Locating the Spiritual in Care: (very big) Plantpots vs Green Windows

Last summer, July 13 2011 to be precise, the cover of RCN bulletin #278 declared 'Prioritise spirituality'.

I am not a religious person, but quite a spiritual one (I think). This RCN news item reported Professor in Dignity of Care for Older People at Staffordshire University, Wilf McSherry's views on spirituality. It is central across health and social care, (it is also vital in terms of cultural and spiritual literacy):

The practice of spiritual and religious care is about meeting people at the point of deepest need,' Professor McSherry said. 'It's not just about religious practices but preserving dignity'.

Also in that month, the 30th in The Times (page 19):
'Sacred forests bear witness to religion's unsung role in fostering a rich variety of life'.

This news concerned the extent of religious forests, with a project by scientists in Oxford to create a global map of forests under religious ownership and control. Now under the guardianship (whether intended or not) such forests have assumed importance as examples of biodiversity. Ruth Gledhill writes: From the Garden of Eden to Avatar, sacred groves have been central to religion and myth ... between 8 and 15 per cent of the world's land is regarded as sacred or religious.

With many remaining exceptions places of care have changed remarkably over the past 30-40 years. There remain many residential and nursing homes that prove challenging for health care professionals (I know they have told me over several years), never mind the residents and their carers. Challenging in the spiritual sense of the surroundings. I posted in 2010 about the wail of call systems. Visually though we must ask: how green is that care home?

Count - plants real [3]* : artificial [13]^#
  
This isn't just the colour of walls and use of curves to soften the environment, but access to outside, to grass, to trees and flowers. The benefits of real plants in the office environment are well established.  Being able to see a green vista greatly improves employee productivity and well-being. For those people in care what is the view outside their window, the lounge(s), the dining room? How can it be improved? For those essentially bed-bound can the furniture and bed be moved around periodically to achieve a new perspective?

It is still upsetting to see that those physically less capable of reaching the outdoors are elevated to first and second floors. Even with positive spiritual acuity of staff (the outdoors matters to all) readiness to hand and soul - a sideways glance through a window, the sound of rustling leaves through an open window - can make a huge difference:

Spirituality, dignity and respect. ...

*And in need of water. ^#Five over-watered.

Image source:
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/avatar/images/9492947/title/avatar_promo-screenshot-screencap

Now I am - IST

Since January 9th 2012 I work in IST, that is the Intermediate Support Team.

This means my colleagues and I try to facilitate early discharge, prevent admission, relapse and also have a gate-keeping role for the local in-patient beds.

Working in IST and being a nurse makes me think about all those other –ists that are out there.
Several immediately fall out of Hodges' model:

Human-ist, human biolog-ist, technolog-ist, psycholog-ist, educational-ist, public-ist - for public [mental] health, socio-technolog-ist.

As per the many nodes, edges and dimensions within Hodges’ model being an IST means:

taking the edges off the things that count but 

visiting all the edges

So, yes I am a social-ist too. You have to be working in health and social care:

As you do your bit to deliver safe, lean and yet high quality nursing and social care - engage in discussions about an individual's health care, care placements, care transitions you are also a polic-ist^*. You take the government’s policies, the welfare reforms, the savings, and latest legislation and sell them to the public.

While you do this you try to ensure you are not ageist, sexist, racist, elitist and those many other ists that try to prevail - especially amid chaotic change.


^* Policist is I believe a neologism in English. What I mean is the way that workers on the ground (inevitably) enact health and social care policy, thereby also selling it to the public. There may be a word that fits the Bill, but it's eluding me ...

Time Magazine's 2011 'Person of the Year': The Protester

This image released by Time Magazine, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, shows the cover for Time Magazine's 2011 'Person of the Year' issue. The Protester is this year's choice.

Thinking about this recognition of The Protester I believe that -

the Protester is an example of a true holistic practitioner...

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

How does an individual decide 'enough is enough'? When does the one act on behalf of the many? What happens when a Person clenches their fist, decides to fight for their rights? In a digital world "NO" and denial of individual human rights is not an answer.	When is the individual a mere 'particle'?  When are they a 'wave'?
The Protester TAKES IN ALL THE CARE DOMAINS.  They reflect -  but they do not see themselves -  they see the future for family, friends, nation: and then they act.	When the State clenches its fist what does it strike?  Who tends to the mental health of the world's leaders? What price for home, land, human rights, education, health information and justice?

MEMO:
TO: The Editor, Time Magazine
FROM: Welcome to the QUAD

Congratulations on your publication and this annual media event. It is fascinating to note the changing cultural, social and political influences evident in the history of 'Person of the Year', most evident in being originally 'Man of the Year'.

I note you have twice selected former president Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1983 respectively. The former president disclosed that he was diagnosed in 1994 as having Alzheimer's disease. It is quite a coincidence that in-between Reagan's selection the means to a global memory The Computer was appointed as Machine of the Year in 1982. One thought: how many other individuals listed were, or are affected by the dementias?

I believe at some point in the next five years you could do a great service to the many Persons (younger as well as older adults) and their families who are living with dementia in acknowledging them as PERSON of the year.

To people living with this dreadful condition you can help highlight the importance of health, research, funding, policy, socioeconomic impact and most of all - person-hood where it really does matter.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Jones

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan