When Should You Take A Break From Caregiving?

Has caregiving left you physically drained, mentally exhausted and spiritually numb? Are you feeling isolated, depressed and angry?

If so, you are experiencing the major red flags that you need a break from caregiving’s demands and responsibilities.

“Unlike the Energizer™ bunny — it goes and goes and goes — caregivers’ batteries do run down,” says Elisha Beard, the supportive services coordinator for the Adult Day Program at the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging. “And when they do, caregivers need respite.”

Read the Full Article

Nursing homes urged to rethink drugging people with dementia

A Canadian health organization is launching a call to action for long-term care homes, to change the culture of prescribing antipsychotics to residents who may not need them in the first place.

The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement hopes to shine a spotlight on non-pharmacological therapies for residents with dementia, which in turn could save money on prescriptions and hospital visits.

Read the full article

Comedian hired by NHS chief to prevent dementia patients being abused by staff

NHS chiefs have called in a comic to try to help prevent vulnerable elderly patients being abused by their staff.

Rob Gee has spent the past ten years on the comedy circuit, working with a host of top names, from Jo Brand and Sarah Millican, to Russell Howard and Frankie Boyle.

But he’s now been recruited by Leicestershire NHS Trust to run a series of dementia care workshops.

Read the Full Article

Reviving Memory With An Electrical Current

Last year, in an operating room at the University of Toronto, a 63-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease experienced something she hadn't for 55 years: a memory of her 8-year-old self playing with her siblings on their family farm in Scotland.

The woman is a patient of Dr. Andres Lozano, a neurosurgeon who is among a growing number of researchers studying the potential of deep brain stimulation to treat Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. If the approach pans out, it could provide options for patients with fading cognition and retrieve vanished memories.

Read the Full Article

Perhaps It's Time To Celebrate A Day In Honor Of Caregivers

We love mom. Or, at least, we like the idea of mom — even if, as countless writers have taken to pointing out, being a mother is as complicated a job as it ever was.

Even recognizing the hardships of life in parts of the world — too-early marriages, too many pregnancies too close together with too little prenatal care, too little opportunity to make decisions for oneself, let alone for one's children — still, there are plenty of things to preoccupy us in the wealthy and healthy (by comparison) U.S.

Read full article

A Healthy Diet May Help The Brain Age Well, Study Finds

A new study finds that the healthier we eat over the years, the better shape our brains will be in as we age. In the new research from McMaster University, people from all over the world who kept a Mediterranean-style diet in middle age had a reduced risk of cognitive decline as they got older. What was the magic food? There wasn’t one, and the study didn’t try to find one. Much like other areas of health, it’s not one thing – it’s a combination of things. And that’s true whether we’re talking about body health or brain health.

The team tracked the health and habits of almost 28,000 people, 55 and over, who were taking part in two international studies across 40 countries. The team rated how healthy each person’s diet was overall: Healthy diets tended to consist of higher quantities of vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, soy products, and moderate alcohol intake. The unhealthy foods were things like red meat, deep-fried foods, and sweets.

How I Want to Be Treated if I Get Alzheimer’s

Oftentimes it’s difficult to know the best way to interact and communicate with a person who has Alzheimer’s. And so I’m going to let people know in advance how I would like to be treated should I develop this disease.

First of all I want to be placed in a care facility, and it should be the best one available that I can afford. I don’t want anyone making the supreme sacrifice to care for me at home. Besides, it’s quite possible that I will receive better care if I’m some place where there are numerous people involved in my care, rather than having one person who will try to do it all.

Don't Let Alzheimer's Steal Mom

My mother passed away in 2011, but the last Mother's Day we truly spent together was several years before that. Alzheimer's took my mother, Amanda Ros, from us well before her death. She was born in Cuba and married my father, Enrique, at the age of 19. Her 84-year journey was vibrant, but with a degenerative disease like Alzheimer's, the memories of her cherished role as matriarch of our family were stolen from her in her final years.

Read full Article

The Root of Alzheimer's: Could Infection and Inflammation be Part of the Equation?

A number of researchers think that it’s time to re-consider the idea of infection as a root cause of Alzheimer's disease. These scientists point to studies that reveal the presence of a microbe that is eventually activated by a stressor, thus causing inflammation which could possibly trigger the disease. Even though there have been many studies supporting their theory over the years, these scientists don't feel that they are being heard. An editorial in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease compares this lack of acceptance of an alternative to the most popular theory to historic controversies related to other diseases. 

Read full article

Aging in Place

When I asked the other three members of my walking group, all of whom are in their mid to upper 70s, whether they had any concerns about future living arrangements, they each said they had none despite the fact that, like me, they live in multistory private homes without elevators and, in two cases, without bathrooms on every floor.

My Los Angeles son asked recently what I might do if I could no longer live in my house, and I flippantly replied, “I’m coming to live with you.” The advantages: I’d be surrounded by a loving and supportive family, and the warm weather is a benefit for someone like me who becomes increasingly intolerant of the cold with each passing year. The disadvantages: I’d lose a familiar community and a host of friends, and his house, unlike mine, is on a steep hill with no nearby stores; if I could no longer drive, I’d have to be chauffeured everywhere.

Advice for Alzheimer’s Caregivers

Alzheimer’s not only alters the lives of people with the disease but also the lives of those who care for them. The journey can be just as emotionally and physically demanding for caregivers, but that mental and physical stress is often overlooked because the focus is on the patient.

When Geri Taylor, 72, learned she had Alzheimer’s, her husband, Jim, became “uncommunicative for two weeks,” he said. Then they sat together, talked it through and planned out their next steps, they told N. R. Kleinfield of The New York Times in his article “Fraying at the Edges.” The disease, in an unexpected way, strengthened their marriage, Mr. Taylor said.

Family caregivers need responsiveness from policy makers

It’s nine years since I helped my dad with elder care, and I’m sorry to see not much has changed for the working family caregiver. The comprehensive policy, the Family and Medical Leave Act dialogue has picked up a bit, but it has lots of room for growth. It especially needs to address the home and community-based deliveries of care.

It’s a widespread concern for everyone with a parent or aging relative, so as far as I know, that includes every living soul. My family’s caregiving days began in 1998 when our mother developed heart disease, and her health failed. The siblings pitched in to help. It wasn’t easy since each one worked full-time outside the home. The same demands rest on other families today.

Read full article