My Experience
My personal interest in this topic had stemmed from multiple sources. The most obvious indication of my interest in Alzheimer's disease is based on the fact that I am a Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major at Emory University. This semester I enrolled in a class that specifically centers on the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, namely Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The material of the class engaged me and ultimately encouraged me to sign up for an Alternative Spring Break Trip. On the trip, we were able to visit and volunteer at several geriatric care facilities. We visited both generalized, mainstream geriatric care facilities, as well as specialized Alzheimer's SCUs. The observations I made at each place were both counterintuitive and shocking- at the Alzheimer's SCU, it appeared as if the caretakers were more dismissive and ambivalent toward patient care than were the caretakers at the generalized unit. This was surprising to me, as I expected the SCU's caretakers to be more trained specifically to care for Alzheimer's patients, which led me to believe that they would be more attentive than the caretakers at the generalized unit. However, the opposite was the case. This is what ultimately peaked my interest and led me to pursue this issue as a research question to investigate further.