Take notes. Many of the Boomers with HIV are now elderly. HIV/AIDS affects many of the body’s organ systems, including the brain and nervous system. HIV infection actually makes its way to the brain early in the disease process. HIV encephalopathy is an infection spread throughout the brain. The greater the spread of infection in the brain, the worse the dementia symptoms become. Placate. There are a thousand ways. Anecdotally, I frequently see Nursing Staff as impatient, demanding, authoritarian, and out of touch with reality. They are pressed for time, such and such has to happen at a particular time. Assistants are especially in need of retraining. The retraining has to be about more than a bag of tricks to fool the old people. Minimum wage. They have the worst jobs. The jobs no one else will do. Turnover is high. Often, the people who do this kind of work, have no health care themselves. Once you get plugged into the system, you do not get out. “Don’t let them put you in a place like this,” is what I am told by “the demented.” I once worked in a hospital where we had adolescents with organic brain syndrome. When one of them went off – complete meltdown – you could hear it on the moon. The elderly have no corner on dementia. Doctors go for the pills. Calm them down. Zombies are more animated. Pills. Pills. Pills. Dementia and abuse are sisters. Someday, we will have more effective weapons to deal with a condition that cannot be approached by the facsimile of war.