Mikio Ikukawa

Mikio Ikukawa

Age:

69 years old (As of July 2019 interview)

Year of birth:

1949

Place of residence:

Machida City, Tokyo

Relatives living together:

Lives with wife and son

Occupation:

Formerly worked for a major trading company

Age of onset:

About 63 years old

Diagnosis:

Alzheimer type

Using long-term care insurance:

Uses day services twice a week

Frequency of gatherings with other people with dementia:

Orange Cafe once a week and meetings for those with the disease once a week

Past experiences

2012年(63)

I began to feel a sense of discomfort.

2014年(65)

I retired from a company where I had worked for many years.
After living comfortably for a while, I experienced that I repeatedly forgot appointments to see old friends.
As a result, I became reluctant to leave my home. When I consulted my family doctor, I was referred to a specialized clinic.

Diagnosis

2018年(69)

I was referred to a hospital and received a diagnosis at that time.
I got depressed and stayed home for about 2 months.
I was connected to long-term care and began having opportunities to speak at meetings, taking advantage of my public speaking ability, to help people understand the lives of those living with dementia.

2019年(70)

Now, using my skills of being a good speaker, I am popular with children at events such as picture book readings.

Joy in life and living

1

Joy that you have given up

Travelling. I used to travel to a lot of places.

2

Joy that has come to you after onset

Doing daily activities and work with a group of like-minded people at a day service

Something you would like to do in the future

I want to travel with someone I feel comfortable with!

Challenges in daily living

Physical and mental dysfunctions

Message to the society

I feel that people cannot communicate with each other by heart unless they are on equal grounds.
Since I have dementia, I cannot drive a car, and my area of activities has become smaller. It is a life with many restrictions. If I want comfort, I need money. Even when I want to have fun, I do not have the same freedom as I did in the past. But people here (day service) laugh a lot while talking about memories.
I am grateful that we can all do things together, such as going out.

At work, I saw the world and knew the state-of-the-art because I always studied ahead of others. When negotiating partners think, "This person knows how it works," you will be asked for opinions. It is important to know cutting-edge trends.