Holidays are not always happy for the carer

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Carrie Peterson under Care, Inspiration

I was browsing through LinkedIn today and came across this good article. It resonates with me and I hope you find it interesting and helpful as well!

You hear it all the time: everything boils down to attitude. Whereas it’s true that attitude can have a profound effect on your reality, this doesn’t mean that you ignore what you’re feeling. This is when optimism becomes outright denial…

Gaining self-awareness is one of the most difficult challenges we face as human beings. When are we overreacting? When are we “under-reacting?” When are we in that Goldilocks zone of “just right?” And what do we do when we feel like we’re in the middle of the darker parts of our journey? How do we find our way when it’s nearly impossible to even see the path before us?

When a New Year is less than happy

Dementia passed on during pregnancy

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Carrie Peterson under Inspiration

A MUM died after contracting a rare form of dementia from her own baby.

Her son had inherited the condition from his father, caused by a mutant gene that makes the brain produce deformed toxic proteins that progressively destroy its cells.

The woman is thought to have caught the disease when toxic cells from her son entered her system through the placenta

The woman’s husband died from the disease two decades ago and now her son, 53, has fallen ill with the same condition.

But his wife, who genes were clear of the genetic mutation, also died from the disease, according to The Times.

The woman, who was in her seventies when she died, was diagnosed with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease before medics linked the condition with her son.

It wasn’t until her son’s diagnosis they realised she contracted the usually inherited condition when she was pregnant.

Ausrine Areskeviciute, a researcher at the Danish Reference Centre for Prion Diseases in Copenhagen University Hospital, said: “We already know that when a woman is pregnant cells from the baby travel across the placenta and travel around her body, lodging in various organs.

“However, in this case the foetus carried the mutation for the misfolded proteins, and its cells may also have had misfolded proteins when they got into the mother’s body, triggering the process that led to her death years later.”

Read the full article here: https://www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/mum-dies-after-catching-a-rare-form-of-dementia-from-her-baby/

Oct. 18 Webinar on Role Changes

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Education

Webinar: Role Changes and Reversals

Caregivers often feel like they are caring for a child rather than their spouse or parent. This dialogue will uncover the role changes that people experience as they shift from care partners to caregivers. This Dementia Dialogues webinar explores how to manage the feelings that accompany the changes.

Wednesday, October 18th, 3-4 PM Eastern (12-1 PM Pacific/ Arizona, 1-2 PM Mountain, 2-3 PM Central)
Can’t make it to the live webinar? Don’t worry! Just register as if you will attend and we will send you a recording that you can view at your convenience
Sign up here

For those who prefer to join by phone, we also offer an audio version of the Dementia Dialogues webinars. Email [email protected] for details.

Thank you again for being a part of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry, and thank you for all you do to care for someone with Alzheimer’s.

Creating age-friendly environments in Europe

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Education

Creating age-friendly environments in Europe. A tool for local policy-makers and planners (2016)

Policies to create more age-friendly environments, in which a growing number of cities and communities, local authorities and regional governments participate, have become a forceful movement in Europe and globally. These policies explore synergies between improving the physical environment of neighbourhoods, transport and housing; increasing respect, social inclusion and community participation; and investing in public services. This publication provides a toolbox to guide local policy-makers and planners in developing, implementing and evaluating age-friendly policies and interventions – policies that support people to age actively and healthily and thus both to do the things that are important to them and to contribute to their communities. Based on lessons learned from existing age-friendly initiatives in Europe, this publication summarizes key factors for establishing and sustaining successful initiatives within four phases of the policy process: engaging, planning, implementing and evaluating. A wealth of examples illustrates how local governments have put the principles of age-friendly action into practice.

Source: Creating age-friendly environments in Europe. A tool for local policy-makers and planners (2016)

eHealth and improvement of health literacy in older adults – best practices and obstacles

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Education, Gerontechnology, Health

eHealth and improvement of health literacy in senior citizens – best practices and obstacles

03.12.2015By: Ioannis Koutelidas

The implementation of the IROHLA pilot programmes showed positive attitudes of senior citizens towards the use of e-health applications (transfer of health resources and healthcare by electronic means) and m-health applications (delivery of healthcare services via mobile communication devices) for improving and managing their health.

Modern information and communication technology (ICT) can help senior citizens overcome difficulties related to distance from health centres and support them to understand their health issues, improve their communication with care givers and service providers, and enhance informed decision making. Additionally, ICT facilitates more targeted public health and medical interventions, as well as remote diagnosis and monitoring. In general, technology offers tools necessary for families, communities, healthcare professionals and the healthcare system to assist older people to age healthily. ICT creates innovative solutions, such as interventions through the internet, mobile phones, tablets, and video games that can improve the health of older people.

IROHLA’s work on e-health and m-health

The IROHLA project examined several promising practices among different groups of participants, including older adults with low health literacy, using different kinds of technical equipment. Some of these were applications that aimed to increase physical activity and track weight loss, while others supported behavioural change and sleep quality, or were games designed to improve cognitive skills.

One of the pilot projects designed by Prolepsis Institute aimed to improve participants’ knowledge about physical activity and healthy nutrition as well as related behaviours, while exploring attitudes towards ICT-based health applications. The content was based on the Greek National Dietary Guidelines for older people developed by the Prolepsis Institute. This tool enabled participants to set their own dietary and physical activity goals and assess them at the end of a specific period (normally one week) regardless of whether they achieved them or not. The system generated personalised messages based on the assessment of goals.

Research conducted during the implementation of the IROHLA project brought to the surface important learning points and obstacles that need to be carefully examined when developing similar interventions. One of the main conclusions was the need for active and continuous collaboration between application developers, healthcare professionals and researchers. Other matters that should be taken into consideration when designing such applications include simplification of the content and use of the application, and the ability to set short-term, personalised goals.

The importance of considering socio-economic status

In an era of technological innovations, a false perception dominates that all people are familiar with computers, smart phones and tablets. But this is not always true, especially when referring to the older generation. In addition, socio-economic status plays an important role in determining understanding of new technologies and the messages it delivers. That is why these factors should not be ignored when designing e-health and m-health applications that aim to contribute to the reduction of both inequalities between different social groups.

Source: news

Thanks to AI, Computers Can Now See Your Health Problems

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Health

A similar tool could help with early detection of America’s sixth leading cause of death: Alzheimer’s disease. Often, doctors don’t recognize physical symptoms in time to try any of the disease’s few existing interventions. But machine learning hears what doctor’s can’t: Signs of cognitive impairment in speech. This is how Toronto-based Winterlight Labs is developing a tool to pick out hints of dementia in its very early stages. Co-founder Frank Rudzicz calls these clues “jitters,” and “shimmers:” high frequency wavelets only computers, not humans, can hear.

Read the full article by clicking on the title, below.

Thanks to AI, Computers Can Now See Your Health Problems

Hour-long naps may boost mental ability for older adults

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Health

Hour-long naps may boost mental ability for older adults

Moderate nappers also had better cognitive performance than short nappers and extended nappers. On average, reductions in mental abilities of non-nappers, short nappers, and extended nappers were around four to six times greater than those of moderate nappers.

Read the full article here: Hour-long naps may boost mental ability for older adults

Six truths for successful startups addressing adult care opportunities

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Care, Inspiration

Six truths for successful startups tackling the older adult care opportunity

Here are six top things for an entrepreneur to consider to create a successful business when building an older adult care product, service or experience.

Read the full article here: Six truths for successful startups tackling the older adult care opportunity

Free webinar on Decision-Making and Pain in later life

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Inspiration

The Translational Research Program on Pain in Later Life (Cornell’s Roybal Center) is sponsoring a free webinar series on Decision-Making and Pain. The TRIPLL webinar series is a web based training resource for health professionals, researchers and community practitioners interested in various health and research topics related to pain in later life. Webinars are interactive and feature diverse investigators and highly trained practitioners who present their expertise on various topics.

For the schedule, see here: tripll.org/resources/webinars-training

Where will Alzheimer’s research go in 2017?

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Carrie Peterson under Research

Where Does Alzheimer’s Treatment Go From Here?

This article comes to us from NPR (National Public Radio out of the US). It talks about how recent research into Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment and the decades of research before haven’t yielded the positive results we have all been hoping for. But, that there are still people working hard in this field and searching for new possibilities based on the unsuccessful results so far.

It’s not the most positive read, but it does show how there are many hypotheses for how and why Alzheimer’s disease develops and progresses and even more hypotheses for potential treatment.

Whether it’s antibiotics, probiotics or vaccines, the list of potential Alzheimer’s treatments being considered goes on.

“The bottom line is we need to take more shots on goal,” says Isaacson. “The next frontier is recognizing that there probably isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and that using targeted therapies based on a person’s own biology and genetics will bring the most benefit. The future of Alzheimer’s therapeutics is in precision medicine.”