Minding Our Elders®

“I Still Do” Offers Powerful Insight Into Alzheimer’s Through Art

During the last few years there has been an explosion of books on Alzheimer's disease. Some are "how-to" books with specific advice on coping with the many difficulties of the disease. Many are medical in nature and some are personal stories. Most are emotionally touching in that this disease is a family disease that changes the lives of each person interacting with the individual diagnosed with AD.While most of these books have value, few in my opinion deliver the message of love, devotion and devastation as powerfully as "I Still Do: Loving and Living With Alzheimer's," by Judith Fox.

Read more about "I Still Do" on ouralzheimers.com:

Find care agencies to help with your loved one:

Adaptive clothing and more:

Can Anethetics Push a Senior Over the Edge Into Dementia?

Dear Carol: My mom, 83, went into the hospital to have a cancerous growth removed from her colon. Now, she seems to be having mental issues she never had before. She is paranoid and forgetful. I thought this would get better as she got her strength back, but she seems as bad as when she came home. What could have happened? – Chris

Dear Chris: Unfortunately, this is not as uncommon as we’d like to think. Sometimes surgery is necessary for a person your mom’s age, but it has greater risks...

Read more about anesthetics and seniors on inforum.com:

Find care agencies to help with your elders:

Products to help your loved one stay independent:

Adaptive clothing and other products:

 

Holiday Celebrating Can Be Wearing When You Are a Caregiver

Staff writer for   mycarecommunity, Meredith Bailey, interviewed Linda Abbit, founder of www.tenderlovingeldercare, and me for a holiday article. Abbit and I both realize the challenges of balancing the "merry" holiday season with the reality of elder care, and in my case, Christmas deaths. When you are raising children and caring for elders at the same time, the holidays can become more of a juggling act than you ever imagined possible. Check out Bailey's article "Caregiving During a Season of Cheer."

Find care agencies to help with your loved one:

Gifts for independent living:

Alzheimer's Video a Powerful Reminder for Compassion

This video is a must-see for anyone who has become impatient with repeated questions from an elder with dementia (who hasn't?). The message is there - please turn on your speakers and hear/view this YouTube video. The power is indescribable. You may want a tissue.

What is That?

Find care agencies to help you care for your loved one:

Find products to help stay independent:

National Family Caregivers Month Good Time to Get Educated

Anytime is good for education, but since November is officially National Family Caregivers Month you will see many opportunities to learn more about caregiver stress cropping up. One that sounds very promising is a  Web presentation, titled "Senior Care Solutions and Potential Pitfalls," is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19th. The free presentation is offered as part of National Family Caregivers Month.You can register and get full information at www.caregiverstress.com.

 

Get help for you and your loved one from a care agency in your area:

 

Find products to make caregiving easier:

 

High Tech Systems Help Keep Track of People with AD

Wandering is a huge issue for many caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease. The biggest problem may be that one never knows when the urge to wander will hit the person with the disease. Even if the care receiver has never wandered before, when will the first time be? One thing about dementia is that it does not make the person with the disease less "intelligent." They just think differently. Often, when there is enough will behind a desire, people can be quite crafty.

Read more about high tech trackers on ouralzheimers.com:

Find Care Agencies in Your Loved Ones Area:

Find products to help you stay independent:

"I Still Do" Alzheimer's Book Powerful Imagery, Beautiful Prose

 

Dear Readers: There are books and there are books. I get many sent to me to review, way more than I can give attention to. However, when a publicist asked permission to send,” I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s,” by Judith Fox to me, I was intrigued enough to say yes. I knew this was a book coming from the heart. That’s not new. However this book is as much about image as words.

 

Read more about "I Still Do" on  www.inforum.com:

 

Find Alzheimer's care help:

 

Stay independent with new devices:

Mind Body Medicine: Can This Help a Caregiver with Self-Care?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Dean Shrock is convinced that mind and body work together when it comes to health. Two of his books, Doctor’s Orders: Go Fishing and Why Love Health: Mind-Body-Spirit Medicine are interesting treatises explaining the science (hard and soft) behind his teaching in the mind-body-health field. Shrock was Director of Mind Body Medicine for a physician management group of 40 cancer centers, so he has a lot of clout behind him.

 

I met him at a conference where we were both speaking, we struck up a conversation and I said I was interested in reviewing his books, which he generously donated to the cause, even after I told him what I tell all authors  - I'm not a book reviewer. I only write about books I like. I liked his books.

 

Shrock’s books are the way to discover the complicated interaction of the mind and body. If I could explain it here, there’d be no need to read the books. Besides, I don’t want to over-simplify his message.

I will say that one of my favorite parts of Why Love Heals is where Shrock talks of his teaching and how he thought that his message was what helped people. Yet he heard repeatedly that what helped people the most was that he “listened.” Not that he talked, but that he listened.

Shrock’s Web page, www.deanshrock.com, offers his books, audio courses and other ways to improve our mind/body health experience. If his knowledge and teaching products can help people with cancer, why not caregivers and those of us aging boomers who are trying to stay healthy? His work is, in my opinion, worth investigating.

 

Find care agencies to help your loved one:

 

Products to help you stay independent:

Living Life With Dementia

Fellow blogger Leah, has vascular dementia. Her post on alzheimers.com titled, Choose Life Over Dementia, is in my opinion, outstanding. Below is the first paragraph of Leah's post:

"Dementia is a diagnosis.  A tragic one, to say the least.  But it does NOT have to be so...final.  When I received my diagnosis, I was devastated.  Newly married, I was beside myself with grief and uncertainty.  I didn't want to put my husband through what I thought would be instantaneous "daffiness". "

Read the rest of Leah's post on ouralzheimers.com:

Find care agencies to help your loved one:

Products to help you live independently:

Scholars Coming Forward with Their Alzheimer’s Stories Helps Reduce Stigma of Dementia

Brilliant people get Alzheimer's and other dementias. Three rather public figures that come to mind are recent Nobel prize winner, physicist Charles K. Kao, retired psychologist, professor and Alzheimer's activist Richard Taylor and the husband of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Most of us can name a few lesser known figures, though to us they are far more important. My dad's dementia was much like Alzheimer's, however it was brought on by brain surgery that was meant to correct the effects of a World War II brain injury. We all probably know and love others who may not have been well educated, or achieved public acclaim of any kind. What better recommendation can anyone have but to be loved?

Read more about Alzheimer's and the attached stigma on ouralzheimers.com:

Find care agencies to help your loved one:

Products to help you stay independent: