VOA慢速英语:Conversations Find Lost Memories

Imagine forgetting everything you have ever done in life –jobs you held, a marriage you built, the children you raised, your friends, your travels, everything. For many older people such severe memory loss is a reality.
试想一下，你忘记了生命中曾经做过的一切，包括你从事过的工作，你建立的婚姻，你养大的孩子，你的朋友，你的旅行等。对于许多老年人来说，如此严重的失忆是现实存在的。

But in Tennessee, one man works to connect senior citizens with their past to regain their sense of self.
但在田纳西州，一位男子致力于将老年人和他们的过去联系起来，以恢复他们的自我意识。

Doug Oliver and his friend Geneva McElroy are talking about old times.
Doug Oliver和他的朋友Geneva McElroy正在畅谈过去。

Oliver: "Tell me something that you and HC (her husband) did together that was just fun and funny at the same time, that you remember..."
Oliver：“告诉我你能记得的，你和你丈夫一起做过的好玩又搞笑的事情吧……”

McElroy: "Well, we was on our way to church one time, and I can't think what it was, he told something that my niece ..."
McElroy：“好啊，有一次我们去教堂的路上，我想不起来是什么事了，他讲了一些关于我侄女的事情……”

However, the two friends are not just having a simple talk about the past. Mr. Oliver is using a technique called guided conversations to help Ms. McElroy remember her past.
然而这两位朋友并不是在简单地谈论关于过去。Oliver先生是在用一种被称为引导式谈话的技巧来帮助McElroy女士记起她的过去。

Guided conversations are planned, purposeful talks. They are designed to help those with memory loss. But the point is not only remembering the past, it is also recovering a sense of self-worth.
引导式谈话是指有计划、有目的的交谈，他们目的是帮助那些失忆的人。但是重点不只是回忆过去，还包括恢复他们的自我价值感。

"They can see what they have done that has or will impact the future and it lifts their mood. Many times they will realize that they are and were important; that they have something to offer."
“他们能知道自己做过什么已经或将会影响未来的事情，这能提高他们的情绪。很多时候，他们会意识到自己现在或曾经非常重要，他们有自己的贡献。”

To understand how guided conversations work it is important to understand an important detail about the brain. Short term and long term memories are stored in different areas of the brain.
要想了解引导式谈话是如何发回作用的，就得先了解关于大脑的一个重要细节。短期记忆和长期记忆分别存储在大脑里的不同区域。

Diseases that harm short-term storage areas may not affect long-term storage areas. Alzheimer's disease, for example, begins in the areas of the brain where short-term memories are kept.
损害短期记忆存储区的疾病可能不会影响到长期记忆存储区。例如阿尔茨海默氏病就发病于大脑短期记忆存储的区域。

Doug Oliver explains. "One of the hidden benefits that many elders have, even when they are having trouble with short-term memory, is that their long-term memories are usually intact for a much longer time."
Doug Oliver解释说：“许多老人拥有的一项潜在好处就是，即使当他们的短期记忆出现问题时，他们的长期记忆通常在很长一段时间内都很完好。”

For more than twenty years, Mr. Oliver worked as a mental health care provider. He is retired now.
Oliver先生作为一名心理健康保健人员工作了20多年，他现在已经退休。

But he volunteers at a daycare center for senior citizens in the southern U.S. city of Nashville, Tennessee.
但他在美国南部田纳西州纳什维尔市的一家老年人日托中心做义工。

This is where he uses the guided conversation memory technique. He finds it useful in fighting depression in older people.
他在这里施展着引导式谈话记忆技巧。他发现这种技巧有助于老年人与抑郁症对抗。

Oliver: "If we were to talk about HC just for a minute. He passed away six months ago, was it?"
Oliver：“我们来短暂地聊聊你的丈夫，他是半年前去世的，是吗?”

McElroy: "No, Oliver. 11 months, a year ago."
McElroy：“不是的，Oliver。是11个月，一年前去世的。”
Oliver: "Has it been a year already? ..."
Oliver：“已经过去一年了吗?”

McElroy: "Yea, In January."
McElroy：“是的，在一月份去世的。”

"Without trying to lift the depression a little bit, people can languish quickly and deteriorate, and so part of the purpose is to take that healthy part of their thinking and get that firing as passionately as you can."
“如果不努力消除一点他们的抑郁，那么他们就会很快衰弱并恶化。所以我们这样做的目的是抓住他们思维中的健康部分，并尽可能激情地激发它。”

Mr. Oliver says it is important to get patients to connect the past to the present and the future. These connections help a person reach memories that are buried deep away in the brain. To do this, he uses memories of good experiences and bad -- successes and losses.
Oliver先生称，让病人将过去、现在和未来联系起来非常重要。这些联系有助于人们想起深埋在大脑中的记忆。要做到这点，他会利用人们记忆中好的和不好的部分，即成功或者失败的经历。

"[It] Helps them to determine what they learned from those incidences, those memories. How does that apply to them and their families in the present, and what impact do they think they have had on the future."
“这有助于他们确定自己从这些记忆中了解到了什么。这些东西现在如何影响他们及他们的家庭，以及他们认为自己对将来产生了什么影响。”

Catholic Charities operates the senior daycare. The group praises Mr. Oliver's work. Linda Edwards helps direct the daycare. She says Doug Oliver has a gift for helping seniors feel needed and valued.
天主教慈善机构开办了这家老年人日托中心。该机构赞扬了Oliver先生的工作。Linda Edwards帮助管理该日托中心。她说，Oliver让老人们感觉到自己为人所需以及自身的价值。

Mr. Oliver says sometimes he thinks about quitting. He has an eye disease and cannot see well. For him, getting to the daycare center and home again can be difficult.
Oliver先生说，有时候他想辞职。他有眼疾，不能看得很清楚。对他来说，每天往返日托中心和家中是很困难的事情。

"Each time I consider that, I actually step back and say, ‘No. I am where I need to be right now. And I am doing what I should be doing."
“每次一想到这，我都会退一步想，我会告诉自己，‘不行，我现在就呆在我必须呆的地方，做着我应该做的事。'”

But Mr. Oliver says he has always been interested in older people and the stories they tell. He says that listening to these stories brings history to life in a very personal way.
但是Oliver先生说，他一直很关心老年人，对他们所讲述的故事很感兴趣。他说听这些故事以一种非常个性化的方式将历史带进了生活之中。