Sooner or later, science will deliver medicines to prevent, slow or cure Alzheimer’s disease, but America’s health care infrastructure is woefully unprepared to deliver such innovative treatments to the millions of people who would need access. Unless the health care system accelerates its readiness for a breakthrough treatment, patients could find it difficult or impossible to get access to life-changing, perhaps life-saving, medical advancements when they are ready.
The First Step Toward a Personal Memory Maker?
Decent memory is a matter of livelihood, of independence, most of all of identity.
Human memory is the ghost in the neural machine, a widely distributed, continually changing, multidimensional conversation among cells that can reproduce both the capital of Kentucky and the emotional catacombs of that first romance.
The news last week that scientists had developed a brain implant that boosts memory — an implantable “cognitive prosthetic,” in the jargon — should be astounding even to the cynical.
In Nursing Homes, Socialization Key for Those with Dementia
Social-based care in nursing homes greatly improved the quality of life of those with dementia, researchers reported.
Compared with having usual care, those receiving WHELD (well-being and health for people with dementia) care showed a significant improvement in quality-of-life scores (mean difference 2.54, 95% CI 0.81-4.28, Cohen's D effect size 0.24), found Clive Ballard, MD, of Exeter University in the U.K., and colleagues.
Adoptable puppies help local seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer's
Julia Knight had her dog Lucky, George Lee his cocker spaniel Rusty, and Eileen Jackman raised collies growing up.
Fond memories of their former furry friends replaced whatever hardship these Harbor House residents were dealing with when two 12-week-old puppies visited the facility earlier this year, triggering the recollections.
Caregiving — With Your Mom’s New Husband
It wasn’t that 51-year-old Alice, a former client, disliked her stepfather, Kurt. They just never got to know one another well because her 75-year-old divorced mother, Suzanne, had met him at a yoga class and married him a year later. Kurt was full of jokes and made her mother happy, but because Suzanne recently had been diagnosed with early stages of Parkinson’s disease, Alice wasn’t sure he would remain devoted as the illness progressed. I should be the one responsible for taking care of her, Alice thought.
A 14-Year-Old Made An App To Help Alzheimer’s Patients Recognize Their Loved Ones
When Emma Yang was 7 or 8 years old, her grandmother became increasingly forgetful. Over the next few years, those memory problems, caused by early Alzheimer’s disease, worsened. Yang, who learned to code at an early age, decided to create an app to help.
“I have personal experience with how the disease can affect not only the patient, but also family and friends. When I was about 11 or 12, I got really interested in using technology for social good to help other people around the world,” says Yang, who is now 14.
4 Tips on How to Discuss Quality of Life With the Older Adults in Your Life
Living a long, happy and healthy life is something we desire, not only for ourselves but for our loved ones, as well. Indeed, as we grow older, quality of life issues become even more important. As executive director for a Boston-area senior living community, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of creating an environment for seniors where they can thrive as part of a community of neighbors, with the support they need.
A Study Of Family Caregiver Burden And The Imperative Of Practice Change To Address Family Caregivers’ Unmet Needs
An estimated 15 million family caregivers in the US provide unpaid care for a loved one with dementia. Despite the fact that the physical and emotional toll on family caregivers is well-documented, little has been done to integrate caregiver support into the routine care of dementia patients. Poor caregiver well-being may not only matter for the patient and caregiver, but for health systems’ bottom line as well. Caregiver burden and fatigue exacerbate the dementia patients’ high hospital and emergency department use. In fact, over five years, the average cost of care for a person with dementia was found to be more than 80 percent higher than the cost of care for a patient with heart disease or cancer.
Must-Ask Questions When You're Choosing a Nursing Home
Choosing the right nursing home is challenging. And chances are good you'll someday face this decision for yourself or a loved one. More than half of older adults will eventually stay in a nursing home for at least one night, according to a September 2017 study. Of course, most residents stay much longer.
Obviously, you can't just rely on facility tours or promotional brochures to make this crucial decision. First, get your ducks in a row. You can locate possible facilities and find inspection data by searching the U.S. News Best Nursing Homes rankings, as well as downloading a comprehensive checklist for visits.
To Help Others, One Couple Talks About Life With Early-Onset Alzheimer's
When Bella Doolittle heard her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's last February, she sat in the car outside the doctor's office and cried. "He said, 'Well, we figured out what's going on with you and this is it.' And I'm like, 'No, it's not.' "
Doolittle's husband, Will Doolittle, sits next to her on the couch, recalling how she grilled the doctor. "You asked, 'How long does this take? How long do I have?' And he said, 'On average, eight years.' That really upset you."
Respite Care: 8 Ways to Get a Break from Caregiving
Every caregiver needs a break from time to time. Options for respite care range from informal agreements with friends and neighbors to formal contracts for services with an agency or onsite at a facility. Here are 8 ways to get occasional or regular backup help for a few hours, a few days, or longer.
Dementia Fact Sheet
Dementia is a syndrome – usually of a chronic or progressive nature – in which there is deterioration in cognitive function (i.e. the ability to process thought) beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement. Consciousness is not affected. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional control, social behaviour, or motivation.