DEMENTIA UNIT

Due to its role, the centre of dementia is a complex place. It is here where decisions are made, patients are observed and diagnosed and, families are listened to. But, it is as well, a place where different experts meet and exchange and share doubts, ideas and knowledge. The form of dialogue occupies therefore an important part of the day, that is, the TEAM work between families, neurologists, psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, geriatrists and nurses.
The typology of this unit shows the specialists’ offices branching out from the central space, which appears as a “street”. It is an internal spine where conversations takes place between professionals. The “street” is a meeting place, where the specialists bring news, construct arguments and provide support to each other. It is a place to read and contemplate, converse and debate. In order to adapt to diverse groups, the meeting tables are arranged along the “street”, different in sizes and intensities, accumulating a variety of experiences as part of the intense investigation that takes place in the whole of AlzheimUr. If once individual work was ever cherished, now group work and research teams are becoming the norm. It even incorporates the international scene as nowadays experts are no longer needed to be physically in the same place. New technologies have changed the way of working.
In the joint search for knowledge, this central space, or street, can be identified as a library, a physical space and an intellectual space where every single story can be found and told through a variety of resources. It is a place that encouraged experiences and where interaction is important in the forms of conversations and debates. The library, which was once a quiet place for individual study, has here become a scenario for dialogues and socialisation. But in contrast to the hectic life of a main street, the library is warm like a living room where hosts and guests engage in conversations and plants form part of the interior by allowing the exterior to enter through the balcony and through the internal courtyards. It is an enriched space which returns the specialists to their more private rooms where they receive patients and their families for more intimate talks in the consulting rooms. These rooms border the mountain so that the patients can walk along a green a balcony that embraces this unit of dementia. A green path that offers a rest and a theme for a conversation looking out towards the orchard while waiting or being close to pine trees that cut across the roof opening the view towards the sky.

BANK OF BRAINS

In a recent visit to the Science Museum in Barcelona, it was impressive to see the different kinds of brains within the animal world, presented like jewellery in their glass cases. Everyone agrees that the brain is a complex organ of thought and reason, as well as controlling many functions. The doctor, Carmen Antúnez, has already showed us images of the human brain in two different stages – of a newborn baby and an adult. (See below A TISSUE OF NEURONS I and TISSUE OF NEURONS II, both posted in July 2006). One is about to start its complex relationship with the world but the other has experienced a great deal on his journey through life.
Bearing this in mind, the question arises: under what conditions do scientists work with the brain? That is, what is their attitude of being observed? How is the brain stored, this precious organ that stores our life history? Undoubtedly, for the researchers at AlzheimUr, the brain represents a key to the future. With it, the scientists keep the hope to find more about the signs and evolution that affects the illness. One could think that the brain’s tissue is a language, still fairly unfamiliar. But what then? What method could be applied? Investigating the brain, are we able to be objective? In Jacque Lacan’s essay ‘The direction of the treatment and the principles of its power’ (1958), he questions the result of the analyst on the basis of “Who is speaking?” Although referring to psychoanalysis, his thoughts make us reflect on how questions are phrased. What is expected from the answer? Working with memories and tracing the past of the patient also raises questions about the connection between the brain and emotions. What makes us burst into tears? And, after crying, can we detect signs in the brain as a proof of that specific reaction?
Understanding the complexity of the brain, the typology of AlzheimUr’s Research Centre is designed in such a way as to stimulate communication and to create links between scientists, ideas and memories, with private and common spaces, crossing views and paths. From their respective research units, the scientists can exchange looks and gestures, crossing the green area that divides them, and observe each other at work; by the wet area, doing manual work or working in the dry area (computers). There is always certain awareness of the other, of collaborating.
Entering the Research Centre, the visitor, on the other hand, immediately feels the presence of their treasure, the BRAINS. This materia prima is stored in the Bank of Brains, which is made of a system of mobile shelving units of high density. The Bank is situated in a spacious and an open reception, with an indirect light that enters through the big windows and internal courtyards. With nature’s presence, the visitor is constantly reminded of life’s cycle and the notion of time. Within this atmosphere that expresses respect and security, the patient’s family is invited to participate in the work of the research and to consider the future donation of the brain to be studied.
With the cooperation and commitment of the family, patients, doctors and scientists, the Research Centre becomes a complex system of connections and with time, dense like the tissue of relationships that composes the nervous system of a mature adult.