Je vous connais mais je ne sais plus d’où...
Résumé
"We know each other, but I don't know where we're from. Any professional working with elderly people suffering from neuro-evolutionary disease wonders at one time or another if the people he or she cares for are able to recognize him or her, despite their significant cognitive problems. When one works or does an internship in an establishment for dependent elderly people, it is often possible to be surprised by what some residents say: "I saw you last week, you came here", "I know we know each other but I don't remember where", "your smile looks familiar"... how can one not be surprised by such statements, which turn out to be true, when these people easily forget the information they encounter? This study looked at whether caregivers felt physically recognized by the elderly people they cared for. Thus, 60 professionals participated in this research, including 20 caregivers, 20 nurses and 20 psychologists with various years of experience with the elderly. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the intensity of the feeling of recognition according to the type of profession. However, the results showed that there was no effect of the number of years of practice with the elderly on the intensity of the feeling of recognition estimated by the caregivers on behalf of the elderly with a neuro-evolutionary disease. But then, how can we explain this notion of recognition on the part of elderly people with significant cognitive impairment? The study was able to show that older people with significant cognitive impairment were able to recognize or generate the feeling of recognition in caregivers. The relationships that are established between caregivers and cared for would thus be the support of 3 terms: emotions, recognition and implicit memory. In the context of a neuro-evolutionary disease, in particular in Alzheimer's disease, we know that episodic memory is affected at an early stage to the benefit of the preservation of implicit memory. Graf and Schacter (1985) define it as "non-declarative, long-term reference memory that does not require conscious thought." For Ploton (2011), affective memory is maintained and holds an important place in neuro-evolutionary diseases, including Alzheimer's disease even at an advanced stage. The emotions experienced in a situation would leave an imprint in the memory of the elderly person even if this mechanism is carried out in an unconscious way. The implicit affective memory seems to translate into the recognition of individuals without being able to name them. Thus, the results of this research seem to be consistent with the concept of implicit memory as a medium for non-conscious recognition. This study was able to show that care professionals felt relatively recognized by the older adults with neuro-evolutionary diseases they cared for.