emotional support for Alzheimer's disease

Posts Tagged ‘emotional support for Alzheimer’s disease’

Breaking The Alzheimer’s Code: One Hundred Hankies For Joe

Posted on November 6th, 2015 by karen

We are happy to re-post this very special blog from August of 2014.

by Karen Keller Capuciati

I’m at the Alzheimer’s Association’s Annual Education Conference, held a few months ago in Cromwell, Connecticut. Jolene Brackey, the keynote speaker, is what you might call an Alzheimer’s visionary. After graduating from Iowa State University, Jolene began working as an interior designer but soon came to realize that she was more interested working with the people at the Alzheimer’s special care unit across the street from her design firm. She enjoyed the interaction with older people and began formulating her own unique ideas for helping people with dementia live in the moment.

She walks out into the audience and chooses a gentleman entirely at random. She asks him for his wallet and keys.

As the man dutifully hands over the items, Jolene declares, “I’m just going to place them up there behind my podium for a few hours. Okay? So that you don’t lose them.”

The man seems a bit confused but willing to play along.

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Alzheimer’s Awakening: Tuning Into Music & Memory

Posted on August 20th, 2014 by karen

We wanted to rerun this blog today because Alive Inside, the documentary about Dan Cohen’s non-profit group Music and Memory, is now playing in theaters around the country. I hope everyone takes the time to see this inspiring movie about the astonishing power of music for those struggling with dementia. The movie made me cry. And laugh. More than anything, it filled my heart with hope and joy. It’s unforgettable. The audience where I saw the movie, in cynical downtown New York City, applauded wildly at the end of the show. Actual cheering! And everyone walked out of the theater smiling. Which is exactly what happened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where Alive Inside won the Audience Award. Please see it. The ideas presented in this film may change the way we strive to cure dementia.

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by Kim Keller

It all started with this simple idea:

Dan Cohen decided that if he ended up in a nursing home, he wanted to be hooked up with his favorite 60s tunes.

The problem, Dan soon discovered, was that nursing homes in America didn’t provide iPods for their residents.

Dan set out to change that. That was back in 2006.

So, as it turns out, Dan’s little idea is on the verge of becoming a very big idea.

Music, it seems, is magic.

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Life With Pop: The Lost Watch

Posted on November 19th, 2013 by karen

An excerpt from the book, Life With Pop: Lessons On Caring For An Aging Parent, by Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D., with Michael Spring.

January 5, 2002

Seven-ten, Saturday morning. The phone rings. It’s Pop.

“I can’t find my watch,” he declares. “The girl must have taken it. What’s her number?”

I can hear the anxiety in his voice. The “girl” is Ann, his caretaker — the devoted nanny who comes in weekday mornings for an hour to get him up and running. She’s a responsible, intelligent woman in her midthirties, with a warm olive complexion that rivals Halle Berry’s. If Ann is dishonest, then Dad is a 007 agent.

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The Dance: A Daughter’s Journal

Posted on February 5th, 2013 by karen

by Beth Whitman

It started innocently enough. The book was sitting on the bookshelf. One of many that Mom would pull out, look through, and sometimes read aloud from. She had been a librarian in her younger years, and she loved having books around her, even if she wasn’t reading much. As her world started shrinking, she began to focus on a few specific books. For a while a book called Children’s Letters to God was her favorite. The mini vignettes that were the kids’ letters tickled Mom no end. At some point during the day, if the book was within her visual path, she would start thumbing through it, and eventually start reading aloud to anyone in the room:

“Dear God, I read the bible. What does begat mean? Nobody will tell me. Love, Alison.”

And then another one:

“Dear God, On Halloween I am going to wear a Devil’s costume. Is that all right with you? Marnie.”

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