‘In order to be able to intervene to decrease dementia stigma, we need to understand cultural stigma related to dementia’ (Low, 2020). Since a large portion of my narrative surrounds dementia there are many considerations i need to take and things i should be aware of before i proceed.
Almost all representation in media of dementia depicts someone elderly, yes the chances of someone developing dementia are higher from the age of 65 with the chances from there roughly doubling each year this does not mean dementia is simply an ages based condition. The most common type of dementia to get when younger is Alzheimer’s disease with this condition being roughly half of the dementia cases from the younger generations. This is also the most common type of dementia in the elderly present in two thirds of these cases. This is the type of dementia my character is going to have, it affects a persons long term memory even in the earlier stages of the illness.
Dementia doesn’t effect just a persons memory, in fact there are many different types of dementia that can cause a plethora of issues unrelated to memory. Vascular dementia is one of the more commonly seen types of dementia that doesn’t typically affect a persons memory at all, instead it affects concertation, planning and organising. Typically when we see a character portrayed with dementia they are displayed with no issues other then their memory. Within my game i want to bring light to some of the less talked about aspects that can affect a person living with Alzheimer’s disease. It can directly affect a persons mood and cause mood swings. Portraying this in a respectful, not overexaggerated manner could bring light to this less spoken about topic. Not overexaggerating is important, yes i want to portray this character as having this illness but having something too exaggerated can act as false representation, it can give the player the wrong impression about how this affects people.