Cognitive and emotional support for the family of a person with frontotemporal degeneration – with particular consideration given to a minor
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Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach, Wydział Nauk Medycznych w Zabrzu, Katedra i Klinika Neurologii
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Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, Wydział Humanistyczny, Instytut Językoznawstwa
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Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach, Wydział Nauk Medycznych w Zabrzu, Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Patologii Komórki
Submission date: 2020-08-01
Final revision date: 2021-07-20
Acceptance date: 2021-09-18
Online publication date: 2023-04-30
Publication date: 2023-04-30
Corresponding author
Sylwia Pyrtek
Katedra i Klinika Neurologii, Wydział Nauk Medycznych w Zabrzu, Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach
Psychiatr Pol 2023;57(2):443-456
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ABSTRACT
The diagnosis of frontotemporal degeneration changes the entire family, being an unexpected and emotionally burdening experience for all the individuals in the family. Confrontation with problems that are diametrically different from those that occur in the family system without a person with a major neurocognitive disorder requires the development of new coping strategies. If these coping mechanisms are to be useful, they should undergo successive modifications that consider the progression of the neurodegenerative disease and the dynamics of the family system. Providing the information on different aspects of this group of diseases is the basic form of supporting families with frontotemporal degeneration. Growing up in the family with a parent affected by frontotemporal degeneration is a crucial, though non-normative, developmental experience of a child. It results in an irreversible loss of the existing relationship and the necessity to form another relationship with an affected parent. The paper focuses on providing support for a minor. Graphic medicine can be a support tool, which combines verbal communication with graphics, and, as a result, it provides knowledge
on health problems and also creates the possibility of expressing emotions triggered by the presence of the disease in the family.