Jeg ville ønske, jeg kunne give en hånd, men vil starte nye arbejde med World Health Organization, den samme uge. Hvis du hjælpe, så lad os vide om dine oplevelser i kommentarerne! Hvis du ikke kan hjælpe, skal du sprede ordet og dele en huskekage!
Gå til makronerne i den gode sags tjeneste og hjælp os med at markere Huskedagen og dermed skabe opmærksomhed om demente og pårørendes vilkår. Continue reading
Denne artikel kommer til os fra Kirsteligt Dagblad.
Kvindes brev om svært dilemma til Kristeligt Dagblads brevkasse har fremkaldt mange reaktioner fra læsere, der selv kender til savnet af kærlighed som følge af ægtefællens demens. Modelfoto. Foto: Monkey Business Images
Mit sociale liv ændrede sig i løbet af de år, min kones demens udviklede sig. Der blev færre ting, vi kunne foretage os sammen. Vores fælles venner, ja selv vores børn, holdt lidt diskret større afstand. Jeg tog mig i at tænke, at jeg selv havde tre alternativer: begå selvmord, blive skør eller blive skilt. Så skete der det forunderlige, at jeg ved et stort lykketræf kom i forbindelse med en gammel kæreste, som var blevet skilt og befandt sig i et følelsesmæssigt tomrum, ligesom jeg selv gjorde. Continue reading
Demens er en folkesygdom i voldsom vækst. Det er i dag den femte største dødsårsag i Danmark. Hver tredje time dør en dansker af demens. Derfor har Alzheimerforeningen, FOA, Ældre Sagen, Dansk Sygeplejeråd og PenSam dannet Demensalliancen. For at skabe et bedre liv for personer demens og deres pårørende og sikre, at ingen er alene med demens i Danmark.
Læse min indlæg om Denmark’s National Dementia Plan
While it is great that Denmark has actively worked on developing a National Dementia Strategy, there are a few issues I am concerned about.
The first, is that the strategy ran for three years, from 2011-2014. As far as I can tell to date, there is no new version of the National Dementia Strategy. After some digging, I did find that Demensalliancen has set forth some goals in a national dementia plan through 2025. These 5 goals are given at the end of this post.
Written by Ritzau May 12, 2015
Training helps Alzheimer’s patients to remember and concentrate. Alzheimer’s Association: Give all the offer.
As the first in the world, a group of Danes with Alzheimer proven that physical exercise strengthens the intellectual ability and increase the quality of life.
When the body starts to move, support memory and concentration ability, like exercise has a beneficial effect on the unrest that many patients with Alzheimer suffer.
“We can see that patients who exercise physically achieve an effect in several areas. They function better in their daily lives, and, at best, exercise can have a delaying effect on the disease,” says research leader Professor Steen Hasselbalch of the National Dementia Research Center.
A total of 200 patients affected by dementia since 2012 participated in the project. Half trained through 16 weeks in a community with others and in the presence of physiotherapists. The other group received no training.
The primary goal was to strengthen the ability to remember and concentrate, which was achieved in two out of three patients. It was achieved in the group who showed up to 80 percent of the three weekly training sessions and trained with such a high intensity that they were out of breath.
“They saw an effect on their mental speed, attention, and concentration,” says Steen Hasselbach.
It is still too early to determine why exercise has a positive effect on the brain. But it may be due to the fact that muscles secrete substances that are believed to have a protective and stimulating effect on the neurons during exercise.
But the explanation can also be simple so that patients sleep better and in general feel a greater comfort when they train, and thus find it easier to cope with everyday life.
In the Danish Alzheimer’s Association, President Nis Peter Nissen urges parliament to require municipalities to offer physical exercise to everyone with Alzheimer’s disease.
This will not only benefit patients and relatives, but also save admissions and nursing home places.
January, 2014, a new residence and care home for aging adults opened in Nørresundby, Denmark (just across the fjord from Aalborg). It’s called Fremtidensplejehjem, which means Nursing Home of the Future, and it’s a new facility that is based on sensory stimulation, keeping active/exercise, and socialization. It incorporates new design, and open and social use of space, and high technologies.
I have been attending public and academic meetings in the community about the Fremtidensplejehjem for about the past 2 or 3 years, so have had a good idea of what they envisioned. I was studying welfare technologies specific to dementia care at Aalborg University, so this new building was particularly interesting for me. Yes, I applied for a job there when they were opening, but, unfortunately was not one of the lucky chosen. Part of the reason could be that they are not focusing on dementia care in Fremtidens – of course they know that they will have residents with dementia (in Denmark, around 85% of those in institutional care have some form of dementia), but they did not adjust the facility to specifically accommodate them. I think this might be motivated by their plan to later build a Dementia Nursing Home of the Future (plans are for this building to open in 2017).
Even though I don’t have paid work there, I live quite close and have grown fond of using their entrance area (with plenty of tables, free wifi, sunlight, and free coffee as my “free range” office. I take my lap top and books, set up at one of the tables, and draw inspiration from the surroundings. I must say, so far, all the staff and residents I have encountered in my “free range” office have been absolutely accommodating and helpful, and it seems as if they also enjoy that people from the community use the public space – it brings a different kind of life to a “nursing home” when it is also a space that people meet up for coffee, for visiting with friends (who may or may not live in the institution), for “free range” working, and for bringing a bit more of the community into the community space. Although it hasn’t happened yet, I imagine when I get into some writers block or stuck on a problem, a leisurely walk along the fjord will get the creative juices flowing again.
Thursday, March 20, 2014, I attended a guided tour of Fremtidens, hosted by Alzheimer Foreningen, the Danish Alzheimer’s Association. The tour was led by a PhD student who has been involved with the project for the past 3 years (I didn’t know they had PhDs or students working on the project – which is a little weird since I was one of maybe 5 people that I knew of at the University studying dementia care and the only one at the University studying technologies for dementia care), and we got to see the IT helpdesk (offered free to the public to help older adults figure out their online services used for banking, healthcare, and other governmental services), the wide hallways, the gym and rehabilitation rooms (also offered free to the public over age 65), common areas such as the Orangium (a space where the residents can hang out with an excellent view of the harbor), kitchens where families can come to cook meals together and the residents make bread on the weekends, the media room (for watching movies, listening to music, or reading – also with a fantastic patio overlooking the harbor), and a few other things.
Continue reading
Kender du nogen med demens ? Har du svært ved at regne ud, hvordan til at tale med dem, eller hvad du kan gøre for at hjælpe? Denne artikel er fra Alzheimersforeningen Danmark og giver 7 gode råd om, hvordan du kan hjælpe en person med demens (og hjælpe dig selv til lære mere om det undervejs).
God læsning og god oplevelse!
I have also translated this post into English, you can read it here.
Do you know someone with dementia? Do you have a hard time figuring out how to talk to them or what you can do to help? Are you not sure how to talk to friends about a recent diagnosis of dementia in your family? This article is from the Alzheimer’s Association in Denmark and gives 7 tips on how you can help a person with dementia (and help yourself to learn more about it on the way).
Happy reading and I hope it brings good experiences!
I have made my own translation from Danish, so some of the words may be changed, but the meaning has been preserved. I have also removed the videos, as they are in Danish. Dette indlæg er oprindeligt på dansk, læse det her (og med videoer).
“I love you, but I can’t remember who you are”
I came across this question on a Danish caregiving forum (DemensNet.dk) through the Danish Alzheimer’s Association (Alzheimerforeningen), and thought it would be relevant to include here. The questions are not uncommon to family situations, and the answers are superb!
Danish summer houses
En dansk ven har sendte mig denne artikel fra Jyllands-Posten gennem facebook. Det er ikke ny forskning (artiklen er fra september 2014), men jeg troede, at der er sikkert mange, der ikke har hørt om det endnu. Så ønskede jeg, at skrive det her. You can also read this post in English by clicking here.
Efter en skade som personlig hjælper her i Danmark, har jeg haft mange rygproblemer siden 2007. Jeg selv tage gurkemeje og ingefær for betændelse og finder, at det har hjulpet mig. Håndtering betændelse er ikke kun godt for behandling af smerte, men betændelse spiller en stor rolle i udviklingen af kroniske sygdomme og i udviklingen af demens.
Doctor Dementia and the Dementia Adventure 