Transcript Communication and Activities: Tools and Techniques Felicia Greenfield: Communicating with a person with dementia is a common question or concern that caregivers ask about. The way we communicate with people with dementia can affect behavioral outcomes. Take Amy and Joel, for example. In a caregiver class, Amy shared that it takes her about an…
Transcript Beyond Plaques and Tangles 2 Dr. Arnold: Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disease dementias are complicated with a lot of other factors driving the loss of synapses and the death of brain cells. We’re rapidly learning how other factors contribute to dementia, and there are many already available and safe drugs that target these…
Transcript Beyond Plaques and Tangles 1 Dr. Arnold: Before we dig into specifics about the treatment landscape in Alzheimer’s disease, I’d like to just refresh people on some of the terms and concepts we use in the field. So for all of us, memory and thinking slow down as we get older. We have more…
Transcript Self-care—Overcoming Barriers Felicia: I think there are two primary categories of barriers to self-care, and one of them is internal barriers to self-care. There are things within us that make it difficult for us to engage, and then there are external barriers. External barriers sometimes look like a lack of time. Oftentimes people are…
Transcript Self-care—The Benefits Felicia: I’ve been working at the Penn Memory Center supporting caregivers taking care of somebody with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias for about 10 years or so, so I have hundreds of people who I have worked with over the years. I want to share a couple of stories today, about two…
Transcript Having Fun with Improv “So what is improv?” you may ask. Improv or improvisational theater is performance without a script and without memorizing. If you have ever seen an improv performance, you probably saw experienced actors improvising a complex scene. In cognitive comedy, we do a whole series of fairly simple activities and games…
Transcript Technology Options for Caregivers Over the years, technology has revolutionized our world and touched almost every part of our daily lives. So it should come as no surprise that there are tools to help care for people with dementia. My personal interest in these technologies was sparked by helping people living alone with dementia…
Transcript Caring for a Spouse with Dementia In the early stages of her husband Don’s struggles with dementia, my psychotherapy client Tanya did all she could to avoid confronting him about his increasing cognitive deficits. He’d been a successful accountant and still insisted on paying their bills, even though he was no longer able to…
Transcript Hospice—Our Personal Experience Lena: Hi, I’m Lena. And it is my pleasure to share today’s podcast with Judith Johanson, a member of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. For 37 years she was married to Steve, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 59. Judy and I bonded…
Transcript Failure to Recognize Many people caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia notice that, as their disease progresses, their loved one lives more and more in the past. While past experiences remain intact, they are challenged in forming new memories. Over time even these memories begin to lose their clarity, and…
Transcript Wandering With the changes that come with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, a symptom known as wandering can occur. Wandering and getting lost is an emergency. Wandering can be on foot or by car, bus, train, or even airplane. If your person living with dementia is ambulatory, they are a wander risk. Years ago,…
Transcript Looking Ahead One night, while Bob was on a trip in the remote deserts of New Mexico with his daughter Kim and son-in-law Tom, I received a call from Kim reporting that Bob’s speech was sounding a little slurred, like someone who’d just been to the dentist. I immediately called our other son-in-law, Steve,…
Transcript The Ambiguous Loss of Dementia When we think about loss, most of us typically think about mourning a close relative or friend who has died. We understand there is a clear demarcation between having that person here with us, alive, and then experiencing his or her absence. We know there is generally a period…
Transcript Finding Support It goes without saying that receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of dementia is a life-changing event. And not only for the person with the diagnosis. It affects each person in the family system. Hearing a diagnosis can bring on feelings of shock, denial, sadness, anger, and isolation,…
Transcript Let’s Support Family Caregivers If you’re one of the 53 million caregivers in the United States, you may know instinctively, from hands-on experience, just how important your care can be to the quality of your loved one’s life—from feeding and hygiene to helping with medications and transportation. But what you might not know is…
Transcript Financial Concerns Ten years ago, my sister’s 61-year-old husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which began a new chapter in all aspects of Sue and Paul’s life together, including their financial affairs. This was marked by Paul’s retirement from his job as an accountant, and placement on Social Security disability. During most of the…
Transcript The Dance Connection People often ask me: What is dance/movement therapy and how can it help my loved one with Alzheimer’s disease? I’ll start with an official definition from the American Dance Therapy Association, which describes dance/movement therapy as “the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive and physical integration of the…
Transcript The Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease As Executive Director of the Penn Memory Center, I am frequently asked by families living with Alzheimer’s disease, “Which stage of the disease is my loved one in?” I base my answers on what I’ve learned from the medical literature, confirmed by years of working with families living with…
Transcript Sibling Dynamics I’m not sure what I was expecting when I called my brother to tell him our mother and stepfather, Steve, were moving to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, so my wife and I could help take care of them. Perhaps a simple thank you or an offer to help. Steve had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, with…
Transcript Complacency It was late morning when I arrived at Bob’s day care center, and the outdoor July 4th festivities were in full swing. It was the first time I’d visited since the Thanksgiving luncheon. I’d been so touched and thankful for the program’s loving care of Bob, I returned later to deliver a cash…
Transcript Feeling at Home with Home Care As a loved one’s dementia progresses, there comes a time when most caregivers need help. The person with dementia may no longer be able to handle simple daily routines, such as meals and toileting. Or the caregiver may simply not have the physical strength to cope without risking…
Transcript Honoring Loved Ones Through Art When my son, Noah, was in fourth grade, he made a sculpture in art class. He worked on it for weeks, giving me frequent updates on the different stages of working with clay and waiting patiently for his turn at the kiln. When I asked what he was sculpting,…
Transcript Music Therapy When I tell people I’m a music therapist, the first question people ask is, “What is music therapy? What do you do?” There’s a misconception that a music therapist just plays or teaches music. While that can be part of it, our main role is using music as a tool to facilitate…
Transcript Socializing I remember the last dinner party at our home, not long before Bob passed away. I even remember the menu—roasted leg of lamb, rice pilaf, and salad that we prepared as a group together. Bob was not with us. But after we finished the main course and moved to the living room, Bob…
Transcript Conversations As we age, almost all of us will experience some level of change in our physical health or our mental ability to process information—or both. Adapting means making changes that could involve accepting help from others to manage our day-to-day activities safely and successfully. Even within the normal spectrum of mental or physical…
Transcript Understanding Agitation When I’m asked about our dementia journey, people’s well-meaning first question seems to be, “Did he forget you?” or “Did he ever get aggressive, or hit you?” These are not simple questions, and they certainly do not have simple answers, but they are on everyone’s mind. My answer to the first question…
Transcript The Diagnostic Process When people with memory problems suspect they have Alzheimer’s disease, there are usually four main questions they have for me: Is there something wrong with me? What’s wrong with me? What’s going to happen to me? What can I do about it? These questions can only be answered by first…
Transcript After Diagnosis: Lifestyle Practices As a physician specializing in memory disorders including Alzheimer’s disease for over 30 years, I have come to appreciate how many different ways the disease expresses itself, and the many unique ways patients and families experience their journeys. But with all these differences, when families first hear the diagnosis, the…