Photography has this unique place in wider culture where it’s one of the most familiar forms of capturing a moment, and also something many, if not most, of us use regularly in our lives. That familiarity is a great entry point for people to start talking about what they’re seeing and what they’re noticing in an image. This works well with a population that may not be able to recall details or facts, but can actively look at an image and talk about what it may be picturing. It also is something concrete in front of us that we can reference and relate to, rather than an abstract concept or idea, which would be harder for someone experiencing memory loss. It’s also a record of the past in many ways, and so a collection that spans the history of photography, from the early 1800s to now, is an incredible resource to use these images as a springboard for reminiscing and leveraging long-term memory in individuals where short-term memory may be difficult.
Posts published in “Awareness”
Hear Audio Interviews w/ LGBT LeadersDeveloped by the Alzheimer’s Association & SAGE a new report identifies unique challenges for our LGBT community facing Alzheimer’s & other Dementias. The brief outlines issues that arise when Alzheimer’s disease, sexual orientation & gender identification & expression intersect allowing advocates & care providers to better meet the needs of LGBT elders & their caregivers facing dementia. New research presented at the 2018 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference found that about one in 13 lesbian, gay or bisexual seniors in the United States are living with dementia.Michael Adams CEO of SAGE added, “While the LGBT community faces similar health concerns as the general public, LGBT people who receive a dementia diagnosis & LGBT caregivers face uniquely challenging circumstances.
Dementia rates for the LGB population are 7.4 percent, compared to about 10 percent for the general population. Despite recent advances in LGBT rights, LGBT older people are often marginalized and face discrimination. Among the 16 recommendations for organizations and service providers, the Alzheimer's Association and SAGE suggest:Expand your definition of family. For the complete list of recommendations go to: LGBT and Dementia issue brief.
Growing older may be inevitable, but getting Alzheimer’s disease is not. Unfortunately, in my experience, most studies of Alzheimer’s risk combine data for women and men. Among risk factors that affect both women and men, some are more common in one sex. Women with APOE e4 are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s, compared with women without the allele and men with and without it. It is possible that certain Alzheimer’s risk factors may be strongest at certain points during our lives, and exploring this correlation is key for prevention and early intervention.
After experiencing the world as a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, Ana Lebron took off her virtual reality headset and began to cry. She couldn’t pinpoint which part of the experience left her in tears. After all, she works with Alzheimer’s patients every day as an activities coordinator at assisted living facility Hartwell Place in Andersonville. But when she put on that headset and tried to navigate a virtual grocery store, the lights were overpowering, and the food labels were fuzzy. When people spoke to her, their words were distorted. Her virtual family members shot her frustrated glances before they understood why she kept forgetting holidays, faces and how to cook. “This brings it home even more,” Lebron, said of the experience.
As the disease gets worse, pressure is placed on the family to make important decisions for the individual to keep them safe. "My dad carried a gun on him all the time. It was who he was. Taking that away was like taking away part of his identity," Carla Rafferty said. For Carla's family, taking away her dad's gun was a process. She said the family didn't want him to know what was going, so the first thing they did was take the bullets out of his gun, then they put a lock on it. Eventually, her dad forgot how important that gun was to him. If you aren't ready to remove the guns from the house, Alzheimer's Tennessee recommends putting them in a safe place like a gun safe or a secure location.
Henk Blanken (The difficulty of dying well, 10 August) suggests that the responsibility for authorising euthanasia should lie with a “loved one”.
My elderly mother coped with my father’s progressing dementia for six years, though the task was becoming impossible, because she could not bear to place him in a dementia unit.
Yet without very specific contrary instructions in a living will/advance decision, resuscitation and active treatment are medicine’s default positions.
Dementia is unique in that any request for Medical Aid in Dying must be made early in the disease, before capacity is lost.
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For about half of people with dementia, the condition goes undetected, a problem that poses a major barrier to treatment. But a new study suggests that machine learning can help identify dementia more accurately than humans.Using data from 25,000 patients, researchers built a machine-learning model that accurately classified patients with dementia 84 percent of the time. What’s more, the tech pinged five people who had dementia but had not yet received a diagnosis. What does this mean for the future of dementia care and the world at large? When Apple overtook Fitbit in the wearables market, the dethroned king had to make some big moves. And it did.Over the past year or so, Fitbit has struck a number of deals with health insurance companies, health systems and other organizations. Its increased focus on enterprise health could prove a shot in the arm, which could be bolstered by a secondary campaign centered on clinical data.
"Conversations about neuroscience can overwhelm me, and medical references to the way our brain works tend to lose me in a cloud of scientific terminology. Personally, I would rather discuss the social aspects of aging issues, yet I also know it’s helpful to grasp the complexities of the brain when caring for individuals with dementia.Fortunately, I’ve recently come across a neuroscientist who is able to make scientific brain lingo very relatable.
Dr. Wendy Suzuki’s engaging and conversational approach to understanding the brain in her book, “Happy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain & Do Everything Better,” connects neuroscience with everyday references.
I highly recommend either reading or listening to her book, or viewing Dr. Suzuki’s TEDWomen talk about the brain-changing benefits of exercise.
Something new or unusual is effective because our brains respond to new stimuli as a way to protect us.
Dr. Suzuki also helps to clarify the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease."
Though most of us don’t consider ourselves artists, we should still make time to create now and again. Not only does art allow us to express our feelings and emotions in ways that words can’t, we can manage our feelings and emotions through art. As we create, we’re forced to focus on the task at hand, freeing our minds of worry, anger and stress. The repetitive movements of painting, drawing and sculpting also help us feel at ease. As dementia progresses and cognitive abilities decline, art is the perfect medium for non-verbal engagement....