Reports commend Sandra Day O’Connor for her handling of her husband’s illness.

From the Arizona Republic: O’Connors’ story sends message on Alzheimer’s

O’Connor’s decision to recognize that her husband’s actions reflect who he is now is exactly what she should do, according to people who work with Alzheimer’s patients and their families. Her decision is not an indictment of their marriage.

… It may be because of their strong relationship that O’Connor is able to see the good in her husband’s recent relationship.

“Isn’t that really unselfish? To be able to let someone go, to say ‘I really want you to be happy as you spend your final days,’ that’s really the ultimate act of love and caring for another person,” said Joanne Cacciatore, an Arizona State University West professor whose doctorate is in human sciences.

From USA Today: A new page in O’Connors’ love story, by Joan Biskupic, O’Connors’ biographer

Peter Reed, senior director of programs at the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said the frequency of Alzheimer’s patients forming new romantic relations is hard to estimate. “But the underlying causes of this are fairly common,” he said. Though patients lose their cognitive abilities and experience mood changes, “one of the things that doesn’t go away is the need for relationships.”

“Justice O’Connor is certainly to be commended for … raising awareness and helping to reduce stigmas,” he said.

Lisa O’Toole, manager at the center where John O’Connor resides, said the facility participated in the TV report “to educate the public about the disease process.”

From psychiatrist and NBC Today Show contributor Gail Saltz:

The truth is, we as a society are still not very good at helping couples dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. We need better systems of evaluating both the patients and the caregivers for depression. We need to teach better systems of managing symptoms. And we need more support systems so that caregivers can get a break in an otherwise overwhelming task. No doubt, the O’Connors have done the best they could under very difficult circumstances. While Sandra was one of the most important judges of this century, this is a situation where we best not judge her or her family.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 8:47 am and is filed under alzheimer's, caregivers, celebrities, elderly, families. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.