Living with Huntington’s Disease

This is a five-minute video narrated by a 46 year old woman who acts as an in-home caregiver for her father, who has Huntington’s disease, a terminal genetic disease that children have a 50% chance of inheriting from their parents. She describes the disease as “having Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS all together.” Panning from the bedroom to the kitchen, the video follows this woman throughout routine moments of taking care of her dad, such as getting him out of bed and feeding him. In between clips, statistics and factual information about Huntington’s are flashed on the screen. Recently, she found out she had the gene and is beginning to get symptoms herself, but is in a clinical trial for a drug. This is a very moving, emotionally impactful video that also provides a lot of basic information about what it is like to live with Huntington’s and take care of someone who has it.  It is rare to find such a nuanced blend of the emotional and the informational, as well as a perspective of a person taking care of someone with the very same disease, just at different stages. It would be useful to play for discussion material in a class about genetic diseases or family members who act as caregivers or in a discussion about how personal narrative and statistical information can be combined to communicate a message. It could also be used as an example video in an assignment for students to create narratively infused informational interview videos about a certain disease.

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