This bulletin comes from Alzheimer’s Disease International, a fantastic organization that is the umbrella organization for Alzheimer’s Associations around the world. They offer support and information to people with dementia, their carers, and the public. Check out their website and you are sure to learn something!
You can also check out my post on World Dementia Month for more information (I think it should encompass more than Alzheimer’s – one type of dementia) 🙂
This infographic comes from the Alzheimer’s Association and gives some practical tips to help families and carers on grooming and dressing someone with dementia.
You can download a PDF of this infographic here: CaregiverTip_DressingandGrooming
September is World Alzheimer’s Month. While I prefer to have it be known as World Dementia Month, because Alzheimer’s disease is only one type of dementia, this month is a great opportunity to learn about dementia and to educate others about dementia. The post below comes from Alzheimer’s Disease International, a fantastic organization that is the umbrella organization for Alzheimer’s Associations around the world. They offer support and information to people with dementia, their carers, and the public. Check out their website and you are sure to learn something!
September is World Alzheimer’s Month!
September 2015 will mark the fourth global World Alzheimer’s Month™, an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge stigma.
The theme for World Alzheimer’s Month 2015 is Remember Me. We’re encouraging people all around the world to learn to spot the signs of dementia, but also not to forget about loved ones who are living with dementia, or those who may have passed away.
The impact of September’s campaign is growing, but the stigmatisation and misinformation that surrounds dementia remains a global problem. Continue reading
Raising money for Alzheimer’s Association just got easier!
It’s now easy to raise money for charity without opening your wallet. With the Charity Miles app, every mile counts. Walk, run or bike to #ENDALZ!
Charity Miles, a free iPhone/Android app enables individuals to raise funds for charity, courtesy of the app’s corporate sponsors. Walkers and runners can earn 25 cents per mile and bikers can earn 10 cents per mile to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. Charity Miles is a fun and easy way to raise funds at no cost to the user.
How it Works
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This story comes to us from the Montgomery Advertiser.
Carrie Richardson drives her son Jacob, 12, to a friend house as her daughters, Rylee, 7, and Hannah, 14, come along for the ride on Friday. (Photo: Albert Cesare / Advertiser)
This post comes via Reader’s Digest. Well, it is a Reader’s Digest article that I came across on an Alzheimer’s and Dementia group on Facebook 😉 It’s got some good info on healthy habits and diets for ALL of us.
Happy and healthy reading!
A new survey from Reader’s Digest and the Alzheimer’s Association reveals that many Americans don’t realize certain habits can lower risk of cognitive decline and don’t prioritize brain health compared with other aspects of well-being. Continue reading
Given the growing evidence that people can reduce their risk of cognitive decline, and in recognition of Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month in June, the Alzheimer’s Association and its experts are sharing 10 Ways to Love Your Brain, tips that may reduce the risk of cognitive decline:
1. Break a sweat. Engage in regular cardiovascular exercise that elevates your heart rate and increases blood flow to the brain and body. Several studies have found an association between physical activity and reduced risk of cognitive decline.
2. Hit the books. Formal education in any stage of life will help reduce your risk of cognitive decline and dementia. For example, take a class at a local college, community center or online.
3. Butt out. Evidence shows that smoking increases risk of cognitive decline. Quitting smoking can reduce that risk to levels comparable to those who have not smoked.
4. Follow your heart…
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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.
This question was posed on a support forum for people working with memory problems (family, professionals, anyone interested in memory issues and memory care). It’s not an uncommon question. In fact, many people who are close to someone with dementia worry that they are also showing signs of the degenerative syndrome. And it’s also known that people who care for someone with dementia tend to have more health risks and higher rates of depression – also risk factors for developing dementia. While depression, chronic lack of sleep, and stress can cause symptoms that can be mistaken for dementia, there are distinct differences. The takeaway: dementia is not only about memory loss!
Families who help care for a person with dementia are the unsung heroes in the global fight against dementia. They carry out the majority of care-related tasks, often unpaid, and often for several years.
If you know someone who is a carer, lend a helping hand! Start with 30 minutes of easy chatting, help them with laundry, offer to wash the dishes or to bring over dinner, clean out their car, or just let them know that they can call on you for support – ANYTHING will help 🙂 You can also read more tips in my post on Helping the Helpers.
As AARP says;
The unpaid contributions of family caregivers to the person being cared for and to society are huge. Yet the health risks and financial hardships that may accompany the caregiving role are substantial and well documented. Thus, there is strong interest in improving family caregivers’ experiences and outcomes, which may include helping to delay or prevent nursing home use or unnecessary hospitalizations of the care recipient.
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 a short article on the US Against Alzheimer’s website, where they pose the question:
And I was relieved they asked it! I had also been thinking about this over the past week but had been hesitant to post about it. I guess I didn’t want to seem jaded since my internship with the WHO on the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities was a bit on the disappointing side. But, I am glad to see I am not the only one who is skeptical about the WHO leading a global Alzheimer’s movement. Wait…
…I am going to call it a dementia movement. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. But, around 50% of people who meet a dementia diagnosis criteria don’t ever get a diagnosis, so we can really only say that Alzheimer’s is the most diagnosed type of dementia. There are many people who do not have Alzheimer’s disease and will benefit from this movement…
Back to the WHO. They are certainly a global leader in addressing health issues and health promotion, and that the work they do is challenging and important. But large scale, challenging, and important work occurs over a long-term of research, planning, and implementation. Shaping policy and all the work that goes behind that takes a long time. This will be a great help – large scale, challenging, and important work that will affect MILLIONS of people. They can affect the movement in their own way, but I hesitate to call them THE leaders.
In addition to the long-term project cycles, and to the criticisms in the article below, I also wonder: Isn’t there already a global dementia movement?
Doctor Dementia and the Dementia Adventure 