Module 5

About Ken

Ken is 70 years old. He worked at the shipyard all his adult life, up until retiring 10 years ago. Ken was looking forward to an active retirement. He and his wife Ann enjoyed socialising with friends and travelling. Ken was also looking forward to fishing more regularly. For the first few years their retirement went to plan but then Ann started showing symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and was diagnosed six years ago.

Progression of Alzheimer's

At first this didn’t impact too much on their lives other than Ann needing reminders with certain tasks. However, as the Alzheimer's Disease progressed, Ann needed more and more help with daily living tasks. She became distressed when she had been out for a while, so Ken would need to take her home. Eventually she didn’t like going out at all so Ken went out on his own while a friend sat with Ann. However, he knew that Ann didn’t like being away from him, so he would only do what was necessary and then go straight home.

Impact on Ken's health

As Ann’s illness progressed, her friend didn’t like being on her own with her, so she did Ken’s shopping and Ken stopped going out. Their friends visited less and less, and Ken lost touch with his fishing friends and became more and more isolated.He said he didn’t mind as he loved Ann and married her 'in sickness and in health' so he would carry on looking after her as long as he could. Ken now has his own health concerns, he is looking very tired and his time is totally focused on caring for Ann.

Making a GP appointment

Ken knows he needs to go to the doctor’s but he can’t leave Ann and doesn’t know how long he will have to wait at the surgery. So he keeps putting off making an appointment.