From A Place for Mom Senior Living Advisors
Showing posts with label elder care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elder care. Show all posts
Sudden Decline in Elderly Alzheimers Patient
One of the things that makes Alzheimer's different is that is impossible to know at what rate any given patient will experience cognitive decline.
This state of "unknowing" is disconcerting to Alzheimer's caregivers, and makes Alzheimer's caregiving all the more difficult.
Dementia Signs in the Elderly
Most of the Alzheimer's caregivers I know can look back and identify symptoms and behaviors that they now know were early signs of Alzheimer's dementia.
Google Search - meanness in elderly
The confusion about Alzheimer's like behavior occurs because early dementia is like a chicken/egg disease.
Do Family Caregivers Experience Greater Health Risks?
An aging America means more demand for caregivers who help care for the elderly, but a looming shortage of caregivers could endanger many of the most vulnerable.
211 What is it?
 clipped from www.211.org
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What is 2-1-1?
* 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects callers to information about critical health and human services available in their community.
* 2-1-1 reaches approximately 196 million people (over 65% of the total U.S. population) in 41 states and the District of Columbia. Yet, millions of Americans still need to be connected.
* America needs 2-1-1 to be accessible nationwide. As the number of organizations providing specialized services is on the rise, people find it frustrating and confusing to access community services. 2-1-1 provides a one-stop service for vital information.
* While services that are offered through 2-1-1 vary from community to community, 2-1-1 provides callers with information about and referrals to human services for every day needs and in times of crisis. For example, 2-1-1 can offer access to the following types of services:
o Basic Human Needs Resource: food banks, clothing, shelters, rent assistance, utility assistance.
o Physical and Mental Health Resources: medical information lines, crisis intervention services, support groups, counseling, drug and alcohol intervention, rehabilitation, health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, maternal health, children’s health insurance programs.
o Employment Support: unemployment benefits, financial assistance, job training, transportation assistance, education programs.
o Support for Older Americans and Persons with Disabilities: home health care, adult day care, congregate meals, Meals on Wheels, respite care, transportation, and homemaker services.
o Support for Children, Youth and Families: Quality childcare, Success by 6, after school programs, Head Start, family resource centers, summer camps and recreation programs, mentoring, tutoring, protective services.
o Volunteer opportunities and donations.
How is United Way involved in 2-1-1?
* 2-1-1 was first launched by United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta in 1997 and now reaches into 30 states and the District of Columbia.
* United Way supports 2-1-1 as the first number to call to connect with health and human services and volunteer opportunities.
* UWA has declared February 11th as National 2-1-1 Day.
* United Ways have a long-standing tradition of commitment to funding information and referral (I&R) services in their respective communities.
* 2-1-1 and its goal to contribute vital information that benefits individuals and communities mirrors the mission of the 1,400 United Ways nationwide to better people’s lives.
How is 2-1-1 funded?
* 2-1-1 centers have various funding sources -- local United Ways, community foundations, Federal and local government funds.
* Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have introduced bi-partisan legislation named the Calling 2-1-1 Act that would provide Federal funding for 2-1-1 and encourage support of it nationwide.
o There is a toll-free number – 1.888.PASS211 (1.888.727.7211) – where supporters of 2-1-1 can call to encourage their own Members of Congress to cosponsor S. 211 or the similar House legislation.
Cost Benefit Analysis
United Way of America commissioned a study to assess the expected costs and anticipated benefits of a nationwide 2-1-1 system. Completed in December, the University of Texas Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources concluded the following:
* When an individual seeks information or referral services for which they have little or no prior knowledge or experience, dialing 2-1-1 is much simpler than other options.
* General information systems, such as 4-1-1, provide information that is too general in nature to be very useful and may charge a fee.
* As a one-stop shop for social services, 2-1-1 would ultimately save Americans millions of dollars in taxpayer money.
* A national service of this type is estimated to provide $1.1 billion in net value to society over the next 10 years.
Book Review: The 36-Hour Day
The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease and Memory Loss in Later Life
This best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease...offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to caregivers, the fourth edition is the only edition currently available that includes new information on medical research and the delivery of care.
The new edition includes:
new information on diagnostic evaluation-resources for families and adult children who care for people with dementia-updated legal and financial information-the latest information on nursing homes and other communal living arrangements-new information on research, medications, and the biological causes and effects of dementia.
Tami Greene said...
This book has been the single most helpful tool my family has been given to help us help my mother as she progresses with Alzheimer's Disease. While other books have touched on many of the topics in this book, no where else have we found as much practical information on how to avoid confrontations with her; ways to improve her daily living; ideas to keep her involved with us and to provide meaning to her life; questions to ask her doctors; types of resources that are available (depending on your area); what to expect as the disease progresses; and how to help each other as we take on the many different roles needed to provide care for her.
I highly recommend this book to others; in fact, I have purchased multiple copies to share with family members and donate to my local library - that's how helpful and important this book is!
Arthur Jones said...
This is a excellent book and reference for those learning to deal with Alzheimer. Plenty of resources and ideas of what to look for when caring for someone with this disease. You can get a good idea of what to expect and how to help those suffering with this devastating disease. Easy to understand and read. Can't recommend this book enough.
I missed the early signs of Dementia (Alzheimer's)
Looking back, there is little doubt in my mind I should have realized my mother was suffering from dementia sooner. Sadly, I didn't have the proper education, information, or frame of reference. Most people tend to ignore the early symptoms of the disease believing they are simply signs of "old age". Anyone who ends up in my shoes knows and understands that a person in the early stages of Alzheimer’s can function normally--even drive a car. Only when they deteriorate or some "event" takes place do we wake up to reality.Sometimes these changes can be quite subtle but if detected raise a “red flag”. Behavior changes slowly in the elderly and as they begin to suffer cognitive impairment these changes are hard to detect.
If my mother had been enrolled in any of the studies listed below, I feel certain she would have been diagnosed sooner. This would have allowed me to get her in an exercise program, get her proper nutrition, and insured that she was taking her medication as prescribed. I learned in the last four years how important these factors are in the quality of her life.
The woman in the picture is my 91 year old mother (yes the picture is current). She suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. I am her CareGiver.
Sensors could help catch first signs of dementia
Monitors and online tests track subtle changes in daily mobility, behavior
Source Associated Press and MSNBC
WASHINGTON - Tiny motion sensors are attached to the walls, doorways and even the refrigerator of Elaine Bloomquist’s home, tracking the seemingly healthy 86-year-old’s daily activity.
It’s like spying in the name of science — with her permission — to see if round-the-clock tracking of elderly people’s movements can provide early clues of impending Alzheimer’s disease.
“Now it takes years to determine if someone’s developing dementia,” laments Dr. Jeffrey Kaye of Oregon Health & Science University, which is placing the monitors in 300 homes of Portland-area octogenarians as part of a $7 million federally funded project.
The goal: Shave off that time by spotting subtle changes in mobility and behavior that Alzheimer’s specialists are convinced precede the disease’s telltale memory loss.
Simple early signs
Early predictors may be as simple as variations in speed while people walk their hallways, or getting slower at dressing or typing. Also under study are in-home interactive “kiosks” that administer monthly memory and cognition tests, computer keyboards bugged to track typing speed, and pill boxes that record when seniors forget to take their medicines.
More than 5 million Americans, and 26 million people worldwide, have Alzheimer’s, and cases are projected to skyrocket as the population ages. Today’s medications only temporarily alleviate symptoms. Researchers are desperately hunting new ones that might at least slow the relentless brain decay if taken very early in the disease, before serious memory problems become obvious.So dozens of early diagnosis methods also are under study, from tests of blood and spinal fluid to MRI scans of people’s brains. Even if some pan out, they’re expensive tests that would require lots of doctor intervention, when getting someone to visit a physician for suspicion of dementia is a huge hurdle. And during routine checkups, even doctors easily can miss the signs.
Bloomquist, of Milwaukie, Ore., knows the conundrum all too well. She volunteered for Kaye’s research because her husband died of Alzheimer’s, as did his parents and her own mother.
“It’s hard to know when people begin Alzheimer’s,” she reflects. “Alzheimer people do very well socially for short periods of time. If it’s just a casual conversation, they rise to the occasion.”
‘Typical’ days monitored
Measuring how people fare at home — on bad days as well as good ones, not just when they’re doing their best for the doctor — may spot changes that signal someone’s at high risk long before they’re actually demented, Kaye told the Alzheimer’s Association’s international dementia-prevention meeting last week.
“If you only assess them every once-in-a-blue-moon, you really are at a loss to know what they are like on a typical day,” Kaye explains.
High-tech monitors under study:
Researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine are heading a study that ultimately plans to recruit 600 people over age 75 to help test in-home “kiosks” that turn on automatically to administer monthly cognitive exams. A video of a smiling scientist appears on-screen to talk participants through such classic tests as reading a string of words and then, minutes later, repeating how many they recall, or seeing how quickly they complete connect-the-dot patterns.
An Oregon pilot study of the motion sensors tracked 14 participants in their upper 80s for almost a year. Half had “mild cognitive impairment,” an Alzheimer’s precursor, and half were healthy. Impaired participants showed much greater variation in such day-to-day activities as walking speed, especially in the afternoons.
Why? The theory is that as Alzheimer’s begins destroying brain cells, signals to nerves may become inconsistent — like static on a radio — well before memories become irretrievable. One day, signals to walk fire fine. The next, those signals are fuzzy and people hesitate, creating wildly varying activity patterns.
Study receives unique grant
The pilot study prompted a first-of-its-kind grant from the National Institutes of Health to extend the monitoring study to 300 homes; 112 are being monitored already, mostly in retirement communities like Bloomquist’s. They’re given weekly health questionnaires to make sure an injury or other illness that affects activity doesn’t skew the results.
In addition, participants receive computer training so they can play brain-targeted computer games and take online memory and cognition tests. The keyboards are rigged to let researchers track changes in typing speed and Internet use that could indicate confusion.
Finally, a souped-up pill dispenser called the MedTracker is added to some of the studies, wirelessly recording when drugs are forgotten or taken late.
Electronics giants already sell various medical warning technologies for the elderly, including dementia patients, such as pill boxes that sound reminder alarms at dose time. And the Alzheimer’s Association and Intel Corp. are jointly funding research into how to use television, cell phones and other everyday technology to do such things as guide dementia patients through daily activities.
The next step of companies selling early symptom monitoring isn’t far off, and unbiased data on what really helps will be crucial, Kaye warns.
Medicare Stinginess Casts Pall Over Primary Care
 clipped from blogs.wsj.comBenjamin Brewer, who writes the Doctor’s Office checks in with an update to his most recent piece, about the proposed cuts in Medicare’s payments to doctors. His column contemplated that a planned 10.1% cut, on average, might be averted, as previous proposed cuts had been. Brewer says the economic pressure on primary care remains. The core problem is that the lack of meaningful increases in Medicare payments to primary care doctors amounts to a cut anyway in the face of steadily rising costs for providing care. One doctor I talked to told me that he’s mulling a career change out of medicine. Though his practice seems to be growing in size, profitability isn’t. a big part of what is wrong with our health care “system.” It causes thoughtful care by engaged, compassionate people to go by the wayside in favor of churning people The docs that remain have the capacity to see a patient every six minutes all day long, but not much time or capacity to care.
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Grace In The Time Of Alzheimer's
The first morning of my new job I sat in a kid's size wooden chair in the "activity room" of the Alzheimer's unit of the assisted living facility. The 20 or so residents seated in gliders and rockers were clearly waiting for the person in the kid's size wooden chair - me - to do something. Written on the white board beside the piano were promises of all sorts of interesting fun "activities" for the day ahead - exercise, cooking, word games, singalongs and so on.
Discovery suggests new ways to treat Alzheimer's cause, not just symptoms
 clipped from http://www.newsroom.ucla.eduFor some time, scientists have blamed Alzheimer's disease on a small molecule called amyloid beta protein (A beta) that leaves large gummy deposits in the brain. Recent studies suggest that these A beta proteins stick together to form floating toxic clumps that kill brain cells. Now, UCLA scientists have identified a tiny loop in A beta as the likely culprit behind the adhesion process. The UCLA team discovered that gene mutations in A beta increase the loop's flexibility, enabling it to join easily with loops from other A beta proteins and form clumps. The loop also appears in the region of the protein that regulates how — and how much — A beta is made. Principal investigator David Teplow, professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is available for interviews. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the findings in its Oct. 10 online early edition. For a PDF of the study, see www.eurekalert.org/pio/tipsheetdoc.php/237/zpq7481.pdf.
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Blood Test May Predict Alzheimer's Disease
 clipped from www.abcnews.go.com
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Stanford scientists find blood test to ID Alzheimer's
This is an important development for those genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's.
 clipped from www.sciencedaily.com
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Patients Can't Recall Their Medications To Tell Doctors
I can tell you from experience, not only couldn't my mother name the drugs she was taking, she was not taking them as prescribed. I investigated this when her behavior first started to change and show signs of dementia. Why is this important? Is my belief that if my mother had been taking her hypertension drugs as prescribed she would be much healthier today and the onset and development of her Alzheimer's might have been delayed.
 clipped from www.sciencedaily.com
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Alzheimer's 100 years
 clipped from www.zwire.com
The year 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of a small medical meeting in Germany where physician Alois Alzheimer presented the haunting case of Auguste D. Alzheimer for the first time.
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Can a dedicated nun hold key to beating Alzheimer's?
 clipped from news.scotsman.com
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Conscientious people may not develop Alzheimer's
 clipped from blogs.usatoday.com
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Alzheimer's Disease Could Be A Third Form Of Diabetes
This article intrigues me. I have been thinking about diabetes for sometime in relation to my mother. My grandmother likely died from diabetes and my sister is a diabetic. My mother's sugar readings are very high but none of her doctor's has ever suggested doing anything about it. This fits under the "she's old" model of medicine now being practiced.
The article is worth reading and considering.
Insulin, it turns out, may be as important for the mind as it is for the body. Research in the last few years has raised the possibility that Alzheimer's memory loss could be due to a novel third form of diabetes.
Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling -- crucial for memory formation -- would stop working in Alzheimer's disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for "amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.")
With other research showing that levels of brain insulin and its related receptors are lower in individuals with Alzheimer's disease, the Northwestern study sheds light on the emerging idea of Alzheimer's being a "type 3" diabetes.
The new findings, published online by the FASEB Journal, could help researchers determine which aspects of existing drugs now used to treat diabetic patients may protect neurons from ADDLs and improve insulin signaling in individuals with Alzheimer's.
In the brain, insulin and insulin receptors are vital to learning and memory. When insulin binds to a receptor at a synapse, it turns on a mechanism necessary for nerve cells to survive and memories to form. That Alzheimer's disease may in part be caused by insulin resistance in the brain has scientists asking how that process gets initiated.
"We found the binding of ADDLs to synapses somehow prevents insulin receptors from accumulating at the synapses where they are needed," said William L. Klein, professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, who led the research team. "Instead, they are piling up where they are made, in the cell body, near the nucleus. Insulin cannot reach receptors there. This finding is the first molecular evidence as to why nerve cells should become insulin resistant in Alzheimer's disease."
ADDLS are small, soluble aggregated proteins. The clinical data strongly support a theory in which ADDLs accumulate at the beginning of Alzheimer's disease and block memory function by a process predicted to be reversible.
In earlier research, Klein and colleagues found that ADDLs bind very specifically at synapses, initiating deterioration of synapse function and causing changes in synapse composition and shape. Now Klein and his team have shown that the molecules that make memories at synapses -- insulin receptors -- are being removed by ADDLs from the surface membrane of nerve cells.
"We think this is a major factor in the memory deficiencies caused by ADDLs in Alzheimer's brains," said Klein, a member of Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center. "We're dealing with a fundamental new connection between two fields, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, and the implication is for therapeutics. We want to find ways to make those insulin receptors themselves resistant to the impact of ADDLs. And that might not be so difficult."
Using mature cultures of hippocampal neurons, Klein and his team studied synapses that have been implicated in learning and memory mechanisms. The extremely differentiated neurons can be investigated at the molecular level. The researchers studied the synapses and their insulin receptors before and after ADDLs were introduced.
They discovered the toxic protein causes a rapid and significant loss of insulin receptors from the surface of neurons specifically on dendrites to which ADDLs are bound. ADDL binding clearly damages the trafficking of the insulin receptors, preventing them from getting to the synapses. The researchers measured the neuronal response to insulin and found that it was greatly inhibited by ADDLs.
"In addition to finding that neurons with ADDL binding showed a virtual absence of insulin receptors on their dendrites, we also found that dendrites with an abundance of insulin receptors showed no ADDL binding," said co-author Fernanda G. De Felice, a visiting scientist from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who is working in Klein's lab. "These factors suggest that insulin resistance in the brains of those with Alzheimer's is a response to ADDLs."
"With proper research and development the drug arsenal for type 2 diabetes, in which individuals become insulin resistant, may be translated to Alzheimer's treatment," said Klein. "I think such drugs could supercede currently available Alzheimer's drugs."
Klein, Grant A. Krafft, formerly at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and now chief scientific officer at Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Caleb E. Finch, professor of biological sciences and gerontology at the University of Southern California, reported the discovery of ADDLs in 1998. Krafft is a co-author of the FASEB Journal paper. Northwestern and USC hold joint patents on the composition and use of ADDLs in neurodisorders.
The patent rights have been licensed to Acumen Pharmaceuticals, based in South San Francisco, for the development of drugs that treat Alzheimer's disease and other memory-related disorders.
In addition to Klein, De Felice and Krafft, other authors on the paper are Wei-Qin Zhao, a former visiting scientist at Northwestern, now with Merck & Co., Inc. (lead author); Hui Chen, from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health; Michael Quo, from Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute; and Sara Fernandez and Mary Lambert, from Northwestern University.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Northwestern University.
Source Science Daily, research Nothwestern University.
Brain Activity Might Point to Early Alzheimer's
A team at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of 13 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, 34 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 28 healthy people (averaging about 73 years of age) as they did a memory task.
Alzheimer's Reading Room: Brain Activity Might Point to Early Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's Reading Room: Brain Activity Might Point to Early Alzheimer's
200 Alzheimer's Patients now being implanted with Microchip
Florida-based VeriChip has developed an FDA-approved microchip that can be implanted in an Alzheimer's patient's arm. The VeriChip contains a unique 16-digit number which allows for wearer identification and immediate access to that persons medical record. The medical information is contained in a database managed by VeriChip and could be accessed from a hospital emergency room. The microchip about the size of a grain of rice must be scanned in order for the information to become available. The chip is being positioned by VeriChip as a critical part of emergency medicine. It is obvious that the majority of early adopters are interested in the chip for wandering and identification of lost loved one’s.One disadvantage of the chip is that it must be read by a scanner and they are not readily available to law enforcement or outside a hospital. Another disadvantage is that the chip is not clearly visible. In order for a wearer to be identified they would need to be taken to a hospital. The chip does allow for immediate access to medical records and this is certainly an advantage in situations were immediate medical treatment is necessary.
In comparison to the chip, the Alzheimer’s Association offers a low-tech alternative, the Safe Return bracelet. The Safe Return bracelet contains a toll free 800 number that allows for fast identification of the wearer. The bracelet which cost $40 is an inexpensive alternative. Most law enforcement personnel can identify the bracelet on sight.
The microchip is “riling" up privacy advocates because it allows for immediate assess to private medical records. The security of the VeriChip scanner/reader is an issue. Who will have access and is the system secure?
My feeling is that the majority of families directly involved with Alzheimer’s disease would favor the chip if it were cheap and as effective as the bracelet in identifying lost or wandering loved one's. It is my belief that privacy advocates should stay out of the way of the development of the system and allow the families involved to make decisions concerning their use of the chip.
VeriChip based in Delray Beach, Florida intends to implant the chip in 200 volunteers in the next week. There are more then 250,000 people suffering from Alzheimer’s in south Florida.
Forty Dollar Alzheimer's Association Safe Return Bracelet Saves Life
Safe Return Bracelet
Wikipedia, VeriChip
VERICHIP CORPORATION AND ALZHEIMER’S COMMUNITY CARE OFFICIALLY LAUNCH VERIMED PATIENT IDENTIFICATION PROJECT ON AUGUST 28
ABC News Alzheimer's Patients Lining Up for Microchip
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