Sociology: Alzheimer's disease - Essay Example

Sociology: Alzheimer's disease Introduction Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common diseases affecting old people across the world. Studies have revealed that it affects around two million people in the United States. Majority of the elderly people placed in long-term care institutions suffer from Alzheimer's disease. The disease leads to memory loss and confusion and affects nearly seven percent of the world’s old age population. The cause of the disease is unknown, but some researchers have linked it to neurometabolism, toxicology, virology and genetics. Ageing is a factor that triggers the onset of Alzheimer's disease, but it should be understood that this is not an ordinary ageing. It does not have any known cure presently. The author studies communicative usage in the management of this disease because its descriptive activity plays a critical role in structuring and destructuring it. Every patient has different symptoms, and this makes its management very difficult (Gubrium, 1987, p. 3). The Structuring and Destructuring of Alzheimer's disease In the study by Gubrium (1987), he collected data from several sources in a bid to understand the effects of communicative usage in managing Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (ADRDA) play a leading role in supporting research, provision of aid grass-root to caregivers and advocacy. The association was founded in 1979, and it assists people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease through its more than one hundred chapters across the United States. The observation of the participants was conducted at meetings organized by ADRDA in two towns in the US. It has become increasingly hard to distinguish ADRDA and Alzheimer’s disease because of the number of activities that it supports across the country (Gubrium, 1987, p. 3). Additional data was obtained from a day hospital, treating Alzheimer’s disease patients, which also supports a care center. The hospital was serving between 9 and 12 patients and provided support for all family members of the patients. This implies that the researcher combined qualitative and quantitative data in the study because he was able to note the number of the patients in the day care hospital and their experiences (Buckingham & Saunders, 2004, p. 34). On the other hand, according to de Vaus (1996, p. 5) quantitative data does not suit social research because it is not imaginative thus cannot help in analyzing a given set of participants. This is the main reason why the author of this article focuses on collecting qualitative data observation and conversation with caregivers. ADRDA distributes brochures and pamphlets from its headquarters in Chicago, and this proved to be valuable data for the study. Moreover, Gubrium (1987, p. 3) used data from professional texts, which were written by professionals on Alzheimer’s disease. These professionals provide disease chronologies and the activities of all stakeholders. This type of data collection is referred to as triangulation whereby a researcher uses several methods for collecting data. The method is very effective because it helps the researcher in obtaining detailed data on the subject, which would be used to draw unbiased conclusions (Flick, 2002, p. 475). Management of Alzheimer’s disease requires good timing, and given the growing public culture timing, it is well coded because of the availability of professional literature and chapter newsletters. It is worth noting that experiences of the disease are different from one patient to another. The disease comes with several codes, which are of differential prominence. Professionals have been able to assist in detecting the onset and progress of the disease. In addition, there is available data that helps people in understanding what a loved one is going through (Gubrium, 1987, p. 5). The author conducts extensive research on what other scholars have been able to learn during their studies on the disease. This forms the basis of what the author intends to achieve in the study (Mason, 2002, p. 79). In every study, referencing is very important because it gives credibility to what has been established by the research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 127). The author of the article extensively quotes other scholars who have been conducting studies on the same subject. In addition, he does not focus on one scholar because he wants to achieve impartial conclusions (Grey, 2004, p. 54). This can be attributed to the fact that one is able to compare different data from different authors and choose the most credible (Fielding & Gilbert, 2000, p. 88). The progression of the disease has been divided into three stages with the first lasting between 2 and 4 years. During this stage, patients demonstrate spontaneity loss, time disorientation and memory loss. The most outstanding symptom is memory loss. The second stage lasts for a very long time, and it is characterized by wandering off, apraxia, agnosia, aphasia, and continued loss of memory, doing some repetitive activities such as tapping, folding, chewing, and lip licking. The last stage lasts for a short time, and in most cases it does not exceed a year and results in physical decline, which eventually leads to death. Due to reduced physical activity, the patient is unable to withstand certain diseases such as pneumonia (Gubrium, 1987, p. 11). When conducting any research, it is important for the researcher to have knowledge of the available literature on the same subject. This helps in forming a basis of what is being researched. In addition, a person would not cover the same work that could have been done by other researchers (Bryman, 2001, p. 6). Gubrium (1987, p. 3) had conducted extensive research in order to come up with a hypothesis that he tries to prove in his study. Literature on Alzheimer’s disease is very extensive, and this provides Gubrium with almost all the information he wanted for the research. The experiences of caregivers do not extend to the terminal stage of the disease because it is very traumatizing. In this case, caregivers are advised to put their loved ones in healthcare institutions where professionals in the field would care for them. Some researchers refer to giving care to highly debilitated person as a never-ending funeral. During the early stages of the disease, some patients can function normally in any surroundings while others can only function when they are in familiar surroundings. The latter group requires care because they cannot perform most of the duties that they used to do before. All patients remain to be forgetful. This implies that codes for the disease are diverse and they depend on an individual. During the terminal stage, most patients are either confined to chairs or bedridden and can only respond to physical stimuli. Although some patients would only need to be directed as the disease progresses, a caregiver must do some of the activities for them (Gubrium, 1987, p. 7). Researches refer to the caregiver as the second victim of the disease because she or he has to offer constant care to the patient. In most cases, it is a spouse or a grown up child. The caregiver undergoes through several stages as well because of the changes of the type of care he should offer the patient. In addition, caregivers do not know the exact timing for institutionalizing a patient. Other studies have revealed that the disease has five stages of dying, which are acceptance, depression, bargaining, anger, and denial. The caregiver goes through the same stages because one cannot understand what has gone wrong with him or her, but in the end, she or he has to accept that the patient has to die (Gubrium, 1987, p. 11). Participants in the study helped the researcher in drawing up qualitative data (Berg, 2001, p. 27). This can be attributed to the fact that the participants were able to offer first hand information about what they had been going through as they took care of their loved ones. Most of them agreed that they were unable to come to terms with what was happening to their loved ones. This is despite the fact that majority of them had been in support in which members encouraged one another to accept that their loved ones are sick. Qualitative information gives the study credibility because participants gave their true-life stories (Schwartz & Jacobs, 1979, 17). Some of the participants believed that one felt as being left alone despite the availability of support groups. They could always be feeling depressed because of what was going on in their lives and the lives of their loved ones (Gubrium, 1987, p. 7). The researcher uses the turn taking process of data collection whereby participants were organized to speak one after another. This helps in giving each participant enough time to air his or her views on the topic of study (Flicks, 2002, p. 475). Caregivers attending support group sessions offer information on their history of coping, which provides information that is not available among lay people or professionals. The fact that caregivers are in a position to give their personal experiences results in detecting embellished codes, which have an infinite number of sub-stages and stages. One participant agreed that all the information she had heard at the group meeting revealed she had seen the patient going through most of the stages and expected many more to come (Gubrium, 1987, p. 7). This could not have been achieved were it not for the participation of caregivers in the study and their ability to provide qualitative data. Conversations during the sessions reveal the future and past apprehensions and appreciations that come with the disease. Some other participants believe that the experiences is not organized in any order in both substance and time. Other issues affecting the codes present in different patients, and one of the main aspects is a patient’s stage of cognitive decline or emotional life. In a bid to help caregivers, professionals are advised to analyze the stage at which a caregiver is in order to develop the best strategy. A group’s stage of development plays a critical role in ascertaining the services of a facilitator. During the early stages, the facilitator should act as a source of the much-needed information and offer solutions to the problems that the caregivers are going through. During later stages of the group, the facilitator should disengage because most of the group’s members are knowledgeable on what they need to do. Studies have revealed that at the early stages of a group, caretakers discuss the patients but later focus shifts to helping one another overcome the problems they might be facing. The last stage of group development results in caregivers shifting the attention to discussing the problems they are going through (Gubrium, 1987, p. 8). The day hospital for Alzheimer’s disease maintained a support group by providing it with experimental treatments and the latest news about the disease but always reminded them not to have unrealistic expectations. This helps in enabling the caregivers in understanding that the disease does not have a cure. In addition, the day hospital told the caregivers to be wary of misleading information because it would lead to endangering the lives of the patients. A woman who was taking care of her husband revealed that the stages that were read aloud to her by a psychologist had indeed being manifested in her husband. Some of the most common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease during the second stage is the inability to make sound business decisions. Although the above-mentioned man once managed a very large business, a time came when he could no longer make decisions for the organization before the disease was detected. At this time, the man’s wife realized that her husband was suffering from the disease. Some of the direct observations that the author got from caregivers resulted in a truthful research (Gubrium, 1987, p. 8). All the information that the researcher collected from caregivers was recorded, and it aided in drawing conclusions. This method of research is known as transcription whereby a researcher uses data from visual materials, interviews, and conversations and records it (Silverman, 2001, 14). The researcher has quoted what most of caregivers were saying in their conversations during group sessions. This data could also be referred to as verbal data because of the way it is collected (Flick, 2002, p. 475). In addition, the researcher uses narrative interview in which he lets participants to tell the story of their lives as opposed to giving them a series of questions. During this process, the researcher does not interrupt the participants when they start speaking. It is a very effective way of collecting data regarding to illnesses because every person has his or her own experiences (Gilbert, 2008, p. 471). In order to understand the progress of the patients and their caregivers, the researcher had to go back to the participants severally in what is known as longitudinal studies (May, 1996, p. 470). The fact that the researcher did not interfere with the type of treatment that the patients were receiving makes the study ethically sound. In addition, he treated all participants with confidentiality because he was collecting medical data which should not be disclosed to the public. The author establishes that the disease is at times ordered, but at other times, it becomes very disordered. This does not mean that one should not do something about it although studies have revealed that in some instances one can do nothing about it. Several studies reveal that the disease has three stages while other scholars believe that it has three stages. The stages are very different in the sense that they contradict one another. This implies that the stages of the disease are structured, destructured, and restructured because of the complexity of the symptoms. This is evident from the caregivers’ accounts because they seem not to agree on what their patients behave (Gubrium, 1987, p. 22). Conclusion The author conducts extensive research on the structuring and destructuring of the symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Some scholars agree that the disease has orderly symptoms, which occur in a given pattern, but on the other hand, caregivers disagree and reveal that each patient is different. This complicates the management of the disease because professionals have been unable to come up with a formula for maintaining the disease. Some caregivers agree that most of the documented symptoms are real because they have seen their patients going through the problems. Future researches should focus on finding a common ground on how to take care of patients with the disease. References Berg, BL 2001 Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Bryman, 2004 Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buckingham, A & Saunders, P 2004 The Survey Methods Workbook. Cambridge: Polity. Denzin, NK & Lincoln, YS (eds) 2000 Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fielding, J & Gilbert, N 2000 Understanding Social Statistics. London: Sage. Flick, U 2002 An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage. Gilbert, N 2008 (ed) Researching Social Life. London: Sage. Grey, DE 2004 Doing Research in the Real World. London: Sage. Gubrium, JF 1987 ‘Structuring and Destructuring the Course of Illness -The Alzheimer’s-Disease Experience’. Sociology of Health & Illness, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 1-24. May, T 1996 Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. Buckingham: Open University Press. Mason, J 2002 Qualitative Researching 2nd edition. London, Sage. Schwartz, H & Jacobs, J 1979 Qualitative Sociology: A Method to the Madness. New York, NY: Free Press. Silverman, D (ed.) 2001 Qualitative Research: Theory, Method, and Practice. London: Sage. De Vaus, DA 1996 Surveys in Social Research. London: Allen and Unwin. Read More