Is Knowledge Really Power?
Families and friends of someone living with dementia will seek knowledge instinctively to ensure they learn the best strategies for supporting the person by reading books, articles, attending classes, or participating in support groups.
Throughout our lives, we all acquire skills, facts, and information from formal educational settings such as schools seminar’s, and classes and also through our lived experiences. From a philosophical context, knowledge is defined as a “justified true belief.” In other words, if you know something, the “belief” must be justified in reality with evidence or reason as true, and you must genuinely believe the fact.
So if we gain knowledge about a particular topic, does that mean our knowledge is power? This quote from Napoleon Hill really makes one question the general statement “knowledge is power.” Hill, an American self-help author, insisted that passionate expectations are essential to improving one’s life. Hill taught “Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.”
This suggests we must attain the knowledge first, but it is not the source of the power. The knowledge is only a resource, and the “power” comes when we have the ability to apply the knowledge effectively by taking action to get a particular result.
That sounds so simple, but taking action is hard. So often, the action involves changing ourselves. This is especially true for family and friends supporting a person not always grounded in reality or is unable to express needs logically. The knowledge learned from books or support groups emphasis the importance of shifting our speech, “be in the moment,” refrain from arguing or being a constant corrector of incorrect facts the person may share.
Taking action and using the knowledge you’ve learned as a power source is difficult. Perhaps the tips below can be helpful in changing our perceptions and understand the needs of someone living with dementia.
- Be honest with yourself and identify specific changes in yourself and actions you want to begin applying.
- Set small goals: For instance practice validating the persons reality and feelings rather than arguing and see this as an opportunity to share a joyful moment and engage with the person. Start small, such as twice a day and gradually increase your goal to four, five, or ten times a day. It will quickly become easy with practice.
- When questions are repeated by someone with memory loss, understand new memories don’t alway store, thus the person cannot retrieve the answer you gave just minutes ago. To show respect and honor the person dignity, try being a bit playful and change how you answer the question. A reasonable question, even asked many times, always deserves a reasonable answer.
- Recognize your unmet needs and take action by calling on friends, family member or consider in-home respite for support to give you opportunities for rest, rejuvenate, and a little fun.
- Focus on a positive mindset and belief that change is possible. Practice a new action every day.
- Believe the research that continues to prove speaking, approaching and engaging with someone living with memory loss by changing our actions, is truly the most effective way to use your knowledge as potential power.
If you would like more information about our Memory Ministry, our Memory Cafe or Family and Friends Workshops, please contact Vicky at vpitner@firstumc.org.