Living Well Blog » Dementia Care

Essential Checklist for Good Dementia Care

Doris Bersing — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:37:15 +0000

Marguerite Manteau-Rao, LCSW, ATR, Mindful living advocate, Memory care consultant, published on the Huffington Post The Essential Checklist for Good Dementia Care. She shares the work of Jane Verity’s about the 5 universal needs to be an essential framework for good care of people with Dementia. These unmet emotional needs are:

To be needed and useful
To have opportunity to care
To love and be loved
To have self-esteem boosted
To have the power to choose

Read the article

New Devices Help Seniors Stay Longer in Their Own Homes.

Doris Bersing — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:01:16 +0000

An article supporting Living Well’s high-tech – high touch approach, was published by Health Day: News for Healthier Living on January 18 by Dennis Thompson. The article stresses the importance of using technology to keep seniors for longer and safer: ” Seniors who want to remain in their homes despite illness and infirmity can get a high-tech assist these days. So can their children who might worry about…Sensors, GPS and more are being used to track aging parents’ movements… So can their children who might worry about an elderly parent living alone, often far from family members.

The 1980s-era medical alert pendants made famous by their television advertising (“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”) are now among a wide array of devices that can help keep an eye on aging parents and get them help when they need it.

Available technologies include:

Sensors in the home to track an older person’s movement, from the front door to the medicine cabinet to the refrigerator to the stove. The sensors are linked with computers that can issue alerts when people deviate from their routine.
Global positioning system devices, using the GPS technology that’s become so common in cars, that can help locate someone with dementia who’s wandered from home.
Computerized pillboxes that track whether medication is being taken on time.

Activity key to a Dementia sufferer’s well-being

Doris Bersing — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:00:15 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, January 10, 2011/ Troy Media/ –

Studies have shown nursing home residents with dementia spend 70 to 80 per cent of their time with nothing to do. “I’m dying of boredom” was the statement made by a gentleman living in an Alzheimer’s care unit to Wendy Wood of Colorado State University Head of Department of Occupational Therapy.

According to research conducted by Wood and published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy in May 2009, the remaining cognitive, social, and emotional capabilities of persons with dementia living in Alzheimer’s units were rarely tapped into, promoting “excess disability” or disability beyond what is directly attributable to the disease itself. This could lead to a more rapid decline.

Because concerns about the use of certain medications to manage behaviours in persons with dementia are being raised, new approaches – such as music, dancing, art, and storytelling – are being tested and have been found to be effective in the care for persons with dementia.

The common element in all of them is engagement – or doing. Even routine tasks are beneficial for persons with dementia. Having the person help with dressing, setting the table, getting the mail, or answering the door are all tasks that can be assigned, as long as directions are also given. Targeted care incorporating daily engagement is key and has many benefits.

If you have Alzheimer’s you can have wahtever you want: GIVING ALZHEIMER’S PATIENTS THEIR WAY, EVEN CHOCOLATE!

Doris Bersing — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:09:57 +0000

Even Chocolate

There are some caregivers -in family settings- or in nursing homes that have found that allowing people with dementia practically anything that brings comfort to them, improves the mood, decreases agitation, and soothes them in a higher rate that psychotropics medications that usually creates undesirable side effects in the elder. In a recent article by Pam Belluck for the New York Times, she interviewed Tina Alonzo, director of a nursing home, who states that “… Research suggests that creating positive emotional experiences for Alzheimer’s patients diminishes distress and behavior problems…” . The article also suggests that one-on-one activities instead of big “bingo-groups’ along with individualized menus help to improve people’s mood: “…Comforting food improves behavior and mood because it “sends messages they can still understand: ‘it feels good, therefore I must be in a place where I’m loved…”

The Aging Brain

Doris Bersing — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:41:02 +0000

Living Well with memory loss and Alzheimer's

On Episode Six of the Charlie Rose Brain Series, a discussion of the Aging Brain with Brenda Milner of McGill University, Larry Squire of the University of California San Diego, John Hardy of University College London, and Scott Small of Columbia University. Co-hosted by Eric Kandel of Columbia University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, we find easy information for the laymen about what occurs in the aging memory related to memory loss and the developing of Alzheimer’s

See the program

Brain Wellness À la Wii

Doris Bersing — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:24:38 +0000

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As of August 2010, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales and in December 2009 broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States.

Nintendo hoped to target a wider demographic with its console. The productions are Nintendo’s first broad-based advertising strategy and include a two-minute video clip showing a varied assortment of people enjoying the Wii system, such as urban apartment-dwellers, country ranchers, grandparents, and parents with their children.The marketing campaign has proved to be successful: pensioners, as old as 103 have been reported to be playing the Wii in the United Kingdom.^. A report by the British newspaper The People also stated that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has played using the Wii console!

Now, we have data that the Wii games have brought back feelings of being young again as the participants flex their mental muscles and improve their physical fitness. The Wii is improving the quality of life of many aging seniors.

Diane Carbo, in an article written for Senior Advice, states that “…Healthy aging and a brain fitness program along with the Wii promotes the development of new skills, and helps aging seniors learn from their mistakes. The best part of using the Wii as part of a healthy aging program is the laughter and excitement you see in the faces of the participants. The environment is electric as the aging seniors enjoy familiar interests in a new format. For many seniors it feels like old times again…”

Exercise and the “Mediterranean Diet” the best options to prevent Dementia, including Alzheimer’s

Doris Bersing — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:35:33 +0000

In a recent article appeared on The Hartford Courant of Connecticut , the fact of Alzheimer’s disease being uncurable and sriking 1 in 8 of us alarmed many. Nonetheless, the article explains that doing your part by eating the right kind of diet and keeping your body and brain engaged can help to prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The article explains recent data connected to the benefits of exercising regularly, keeping a diet rich in Omega 3, olive oil, and wine…yes, wine… staying cognitively engaged, and avoiding depression is ultimately the most reasonable approach not only to prevent dementia but also “… to treat conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes…”

Alzheimer’s Association reports on optimism among scientists to solve the Alzheimer’s puzzle!

Doris Bersing — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:37:57 +0000

The Alzheimer’s Association presented an article published by the Health Day News for Healthy Living where the outlook for Alzheimer’s disease research is promising, even as the disease’s looming impact on society grows, experts say. Work is being done on scans and tests that could lead to early detection, and researchers are also identifying genetic and biological markers that could indicate if a person is at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s.

The Health Day Article by Dennis Thompson states “…Research into Alzheimer’s disease has reached a point of significant potential, even as the disease’s looming impact on society grows more and more dire, experts say. Some leading scientists, in fact, worry that we may not be doing enough to press forward with key advances and new insights into Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia among older people…”

Read the article

Six Questions to Protect Elderly Patients

Doris Bersing — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:45:26 +0000

Living Well provides medical advocacy to help patients who are hospitalized

On the Wellness section of the New York Times, Pam Belluck compile the advice of three experts on the questions family members can ask to lower a patient’s risk for delirium during a hospital stay.

Pam says “…Many readers have asked me what family members can do to help lower an elderly patient’s risk. To find out, I turned to three experts – Dr. Margaret Pisani at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Wes Ely at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Dr. Sharon Inouye at Harvard Medical School. Based on their advice, here are six questions family members should ask to lower an elderly patient’s risk for hospital delirium…”

Read the article

Wandering Seniors at Risk of Getting Lost and Even Dying.

Doris Bersing — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:20:42 +0000

Smart technology: GPS shoes for wandering seniors!

Some of the common symptoms of Alzheimer’s and any other type of dementia are lack of memory, confusion, and wandering. These symptoms usually lead to loosing track of familiar surroundings and thus getting lost. Understanding the symptoms of dementia might help safeguard elderly people who are at risk for getting lost. While infections, tumors, and head injuries can all cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease is most commonly behind the phenomenon of wandering. For patients who hallucinate, their risk for wandering might depend on how well they trust their caregiver. If they hallucinate, they may be at low risk or high risk, depending on their trust for the caregiver. If they are suspicious, they might try to get out.

In 2008, Texas Legislature enacted a statewide communication system to help find mentally impaired senior citizens. “I think they are a really good idea,” said Hester, a Lubbock Police sergeant. “(A Silver Alert) could have helped those people. I mean, nobody knew where they were.” But Silver Alerts alone can’t keep seniors safe. On Monday, police officials were preparing an alert for 70-year-old Lubbock resident Jim Hardy Clary, who left home for a doctor’s appointment he didn’t keep. He was found dead before a statewide alarm was raised. Read More about this article

In Virginia, law enforcement officers are learning how to search for missing persons who may not know they are lost. A 4-minute video produced by Kassie Bracken for The New York Times tells us the lessons they have learned.

See the video: lessons from the Lost