Week 1

During my first week of interning I sought to identify a few residents that I could derive research from, and I've come up with a few names:

 Jeanette: Jeanette grew up in Chicago and moved to Arizona a while ago. She has a very strong personality, with very strong opinions, and can be easily aggravated by the other residents. Jeanette is a higher functioning resident, who retains reason and logic, but has very little context for her condition. She seems to think that her being at the residency home is not unlike a hotel, where she'll constantly be discussing how she's waiting to be taken home. Jeanette seems to have a lack of short term memory, where she won't remember my age or name, but she will spin stories about who I am without any suggestions on my part. She seems to react very passionately to the live performances and sings along to the lyrics.

Tom: I am not totally sure of Tom's past, because he is much harder to support conversation with. Tom will respond in either yes or no with a sentence or head motion, with limited ability to support a prolonged conversation. Tom can talk back and forth, but once  a conversation between people around him starts moving, he'll get hung up on a point of interest, and be unable to contribute actively afterward. For instance, when his wife came to visit at the same time as me, the three of us began talking about how Tom was going to go in to a doctor for a checkup later that day. She said Tom may get some ice cream after they went, and as the conversation moved to different topics , Tom would always reiterate that point of getting ice cream. I imagine that Tom lacks short term memory during a process of critical thinking, and I aim to test that portion later on.

Mildred: Mildred is originally from a farm in Wyoming. She grew up with some siblings but has so far been more focused on present than past. She seems to have developed an antisocial personality as a result of her memory loss, as she has devoted most of her time to her dog Bonita. She seems t mirror some of the traits of social recluses, where she'll mainly stay in her room outside of meals and live performances. She has issues initiating conversation, but outside of that her memory loss symptoms are less apparent than the others', so it will likely take more time to identify what they are.

Virginia: Grew up in North Carolina with three sisters, and has three daughters. Her daughters come to see her, butt live far enough away that it is not often. Virginia seems to lack both short term and long term memory, as I needed the caretakers to tell me details about her family and past that she could not remember. She doesn't hold interest easily, and will often doze off during group conversation. So far that is all I know regarding her, and as a result I will be researching her morein the future.

Inge: Was a German immigrant, given her age I wonder if she left during the time period of the Nazi regime or shortly after, but the memories of that time seem troubling to her, so I'm cautious to push any farther forward. She has a son and a daughter, and is very proud of them. She seems to have a unique reaction to a lack of memory, where she both laughs and cries, indicating that she has knowledge of her lack of memory but also is disappointed in herself. She seems to have both a lack of long term and short term memory, but retains her ability to think logically and support conversation.

I'll be on the lookout for any others who would yield interesting research, but this core group seems to be a good starting point.