On Stroke

An excellent story on stroke from the New York times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/health/28stroke.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Bilking The Elderly: II

Here is another article about financial abuse of the elderly, this one on line abuse. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18553590/



More and more elderly people are using the internet, and not just for email. They are often more vulnerable to abuse, for many reasons. They include being more trusting, lack of familiarity with the web, emotional issues such as depression and loneliness, and impaired cognition. These set them up for financial abuse.

If you are dealing with older people, as a family caregiver, a financial advisor, etc., there are a couple things you can do:

1. Discuss the different kinds of fraud which come up on the internet, and give them concrete examples.

2. Write up some guidelines/ warnings for them.

3. Make sure they have good spam, spyware, malware, virus protection, etc. set up, functioning, and up to date.

4. Watch for the signs of those things that make them vulnerable, as I mentioned above. Some of them you may not be able to do anything about, but others, such as loneliness and depression you may.

5. If you are able to, or they are willing, make sure their are secure limits on accounts and credit cards.

Bilking the Elderly

Here is an article which recently appeared in the New York Times. It should give us all cause for awareness and some vigilance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/20tele.html?ex=1337400000&en=7b93b846321abb28&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Aging and Dignity

So often when we talk with and about older people and the challenges faced as they have to make decisions, we talk about loss of independence or grief.

We rarely talk about dignity. Last week a lady I knew had to face the upcoming separation of her and her husband as he could no longer care for her with her increasing dementia. She is in an in between kind of stage where she knows something is wrong, but she can't quite figure out what. But she still has her dignity, and that is what she struggled with--how to face her understanding that somehow a change is necessary and still feel okay about herself.

Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines dignity as " the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed." The concept of elder used to have this as an inherent part. How did we lose that?

How do we get it back?

Dementia and Caregivers

It is so easy to be confused about the abilities of someone we love when they have Alzheimers Disease. Often, it is difficult to see the decline that others can see. This happens partially because we have seen someone frequently, and partially because a loved one can maintain good social skills and familiar habits and ways of relating, even when their cognitive ability has declined. Sometimes it happens because we don't want to see the changes, or acknowledge what they mean. So it can be a combination of caregiver grief and their loved one's personality that makes this so difficult.

I have a gentleman in an Assisted Living apartment whose son has been fighting the transfer of his father to a unit where there is more help.

"My father is not like that yet," the son told me. Then he added, " Is he?"

My first thought was to say gently, that yes, he is. But then I thought it was better to say, " It's hard for you to think of your Dad declining to that point, eh?" One focussed on the father, one on the son. But right then and there, the son needed some help, to be able to help his father.

Programme on Fall Proofing Your Home

The B.C. Balance and Dizziness Disorders Society
(BADD) is having a free one afternoon programme:


“Fall-proofing Your Home Environment”
featuring Wayne Tang, B.H.K. M.Sc. Occupational Therapist


St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver
Hurlburt Auditorium
May 16th, 4:30 p.m.
For more information call: 604 878-8383 (BADD)

www.BalanceAndDizziness.org

Wayne Tang has an Undergraduate Degree in Human Kinetics and a Masters in Occupational Therapy from McMaster University. He has worked as an Occupational Therapist in neurological, acute, mental health, burns and plastics, and vocational rehabilitation settings. Currently, he manages a program which assists clients to return to function and gainful employment. He has provided Occupation Therapy services in return-to-work aspects for head injury assessment and treatment, chronic pain management, and return-to-work support programs. He performs functional evaluations to assist with case management and return-to-work planning, as well as providing disability management services.
Besides all this, Wayne finds the time to mentor both occupational therapy students and rehabilitation assistant students at UBC and Capilano College, and volunteers for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC and the Yukon.

Reasoning with someone who has Alzheimers

One of the ways Alzheimers Disease and other dementias affect someone is the loss of what is called executive function--the ability to plan and execute tasks, reasoning, and judgment. So often when caregivers try to reason with somone with Alzheimer's, they are not successful, because the person does not have the ability to reason.

But they don't lose all of their reasoning ability at once, and often things will make sense, but it has to make sense in the world that they inhabit. Reasons and explanations have to fit where they are. Different days, different reasons may make sense.

Keep reasons simple.
Make them as concrete as possible
Listen to what the person is hearing
Re-direct and talk about something else if the reasoning is not working.