Although Black Americans are about twice as likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer’s disease as White Americans, they’re also less likely to be diagnosed with it. A variety of factors play a role in this disturbing trend, including stress and racial inequities. Here...
By Judith Graham Six people with Alzheimer’s disease and related types of cognitive impairment stood before an audience of 100 in North Haven, Conn. One by one, they talked about what it was like to live with dementia in deeply personal terms. Before the presentation,...
While similar in some respects, dementia and Alzheimer’s are not the same thing, and it’s important to know the differences in these two medical terms. It is important for caregivers, family members, and loved ones to know the difference between these two so that an...
The loss of the ability to communicate is one of the more painful side affects that people with dementia must experience. It can impact people in many different ways. The onset of communication loss can be gradual and it reveals itself in many ways. Examples include:...
Watching a parent or loved one slowly succumb to dementia is painful and emotional. It often begins with subtle changes such as forgetfulness, but, in order for you to detect that it is in fact dementia, there must be two types of impairment. The challenge is the fact...
As a caregiver for a dementia patient, you are likely to be both worried and frustrated given the needs and requirements of this job. Looking after someone with dementia is a very demanding task and requires a lot of efforts on the caregiver’s part. Research has it...
Dementia is an umbrella term for a progressive age-related disorder which is primarily seen in senior patients. It is associated with deterioration of the patients’ memory, cognition, behavior and a decline in their ability to perform activities of daily living....
Being a caregiver for someone who has a memory deficit can be extremely challenging. It becomes even more difficult when that person is unaware of their dementia or any other limitations associated with it. Dementia can directly impact a person’s ability to follow...
By JoNel Aleccia Bill Harris is blunt: For more than a year, he has been trying to help his wife die. The 75-year-old retired tech worker says it’s his duty to Nora Harris, his spouse of nearly four decades, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in...
If you’re a caregiver for someone with dementia, chances are you know the value of a good night’s sleep. Sleep plays a crucial role in our physical, mental, and emotional health, and quality sleep plays a huge role in quality care. Unfortunately, poor sleeping...
Alzheimer’s disease now affects an estimated 5.5 million Americans, and after decades of feverish work, researchers have so far failed to find a treatment that halts or reverses the inexorable loss of memory, function and thinking ability that characterize this...
We have not been incredibly close over our lifetimes, and I was very much looking forward to us spending some time getting to know one another, now, as adults who had both forgiven the past and put it behind us. I have to be honest with you: I’m angry that I...
One of the most difficult aspects of being a caregiver is having to cope with aggressive or other challenging behaviors that the person you care for exhibits. Other examples of challenging actions includes hallucinations, verbal abuse, anger, running away, taking...
I recently visited my husband at the long term care facility where he now resides and I was impressed by his latest creative work of art. This time he had all of the things out of his bathroom cupboard, his mouthwash, hair brush, plastic glass, soap and toothbrush...
I wonder if I’m dreaming the whole thing. Is this really my mother? She’s walking around in circles, yelling and cursing about people “breaking into her house.” This exhausted, disheveled woman with fear in her eyes and venom in her voice is a...
Are people who live with dementia sometimes uncooperative, upset, angry or even “aggressive?” Yes. But then again, so am I. If provoked, do people who live with dementia sometimes “lash out?” Yes. But then again, so do I, although extremely rarely in a physical way...
Before my sister was struck by frontotemporal dementia, her wishes were very clear. No feeding tube or breathing machine if she became profoundly incapacitated, without the prospect of recovery. No aggressive life-sustaining measures. And she wanted to stay in her...
Ten months ago, Peter Mittler stood before a global audience of Alzheimer’s disease researchers and advocates and decried the indignities that people with dementia undergo. He knows the subject intimately: Mittler, an 86-year-old British psychologist, was...
A new study finds that the prevalence of dementia has fallen sharply in recent years, most likely as a result of Americans’ rising educational levels and better heart health, which are both closely related to brain health. Dementia rates in people over age 65 fell...
Dementia took over Pauline Finster’s 91-year-old mind long ago and she may die without having another real conversation with her daughter. After Finster broke her hip in July 2015, Jackie Mantua noticed her mother’s speech ebbing until she only said “hi,” or that she...
The caregiving community is incredibly diverse, but it seems we can agree that dementia caregivers — both family and professional caregivers — should be trained. Dementia caregiving is a world where the ‘normal’ rules don’t apply and we...
The thought of going to the hospital can be very frightening and disorient for people suffering from dementia. The stay at the hospital could be for a short period, for instance, an operation or for a longer period due to a serious illness or accident. Statistics show...
Assisted living residents who abuse other residents or staff are likely to have dementia or severe mental illness, afflictions that pose unappreciated risks in facilities occupied by vulnerable elderly adults, a new study reported. That abuse can include physical,...
Confession: I am a caregiver, and I have no idea what I’m doing. In the blink of an eye, I have shifted from a career as national vice president of sales to suddenly becoming the sole caregiver for my mother, who lives nearly 3,000 miles away. While I’m fortunate she...
Excerpt from Unexpected Gifts: My Journey with My Father’s Dementia, the following is the preface of the book. My dad, Reuben Soldinger, was ill for nearly two years. His mind was confused about many things. Sometimes he thought he was at a hotel, not in a...
Carrie Clarke is a former traditional signwriter who has worked for many years in the arts and health field. She is currently an Occupational Therapist working with an NHS inpatient unit for people with dementia in Exeter, UK; she is also a practising artist. In 2010...
A professional flutist, Toshiro Mitsutomi, developed 3 tips to evoke dementia patients’ memory and their life successfully during his 40years career: 1)play close 2)play at the same eye level 3)looking in the eye while playing. He actually demonstrated it by...
June emphasized that families need to work alongside nurses to care for their relatives with Dementia. Professor June Andrews FRCN is Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing...
NIH-funded study examines medical, care costs in last five years of life. In the last five years of life, total health care spending for people with dementia was more than a quarter-million dollars per person, some 57 percent greater than costs associated with death...
Kate Irving, who has spent the last 20 years of her career working with people with Dementia, is clinical lead in the Memory Works clinic in the Healthy Living Centre, an initiative to decrease stigma and increase access to information about cognitive health promotion...
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