Have you ever had trouble understanding something? Or even someone? Maybe you didn't have an open mind or you simply just didn't understand. Either way you probably tried your best to understand to your fullest extent. My research on dementia helped broaden my understanding of the short story "Babysitting Helen". It taught me that Helen's behavior is normal, Barb had a good reason to take time off for herself, and Trish's actions were questionable but understandable. Throughout the short story "Babysitting Helen" Helen's behavior may seem peculiar but we also learn that Helen is a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. Therefore Helen's behavior is normal for a person living with dementia. "Helen sat quietly through the funniest bits and laughed when nothing funny was happening at all", Trish had observed (Stinson 301). Typically someone would laugh during the humorous parts obviously because those parts are made to be funny. Similarly in the article "What Is Alzheimer's?" It is stated that with Alzheimer's there will be "mood and behavior changes" (alz.org). Consequently someone who has no knowledge of Alzheimer's would infer that Helen was a crazy person. …show more content…
"Barb Stanley needs someone to stay with Helen for a few hours" (Stinson 300) so with this evidence from the story we know Barb isn't going to be gone for long but long enough so that she can take enough time to "reboot" to avoid caregiver's stress. From this was confused because I did not know about caregiver's stress and I thought she would love spending extra time with her mother. Additionally in an article "Caregiver Stress" one of the ways to prevent this is to "spend some me time". (alz.org). The research changed my understanding because I now know the importance of caregiver's taking care of