The Dementia Caregiver's Toolbox

Dementia Caregiver's Depression May Lead To Hospitalization

A new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine and partially supported by the  Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, has found that 24% of caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease will either visit an emergency room or be admitted to a hospital related to depression.

Dementia Outdoors

Unless you are a hermit, you probably spend some part of your day outside the place you live.  Even if it is just going back and forth to work, you pass through the outdoors on your way to somewhere else.  It is NORMAL for humans to spend time enjoying the benefits of the outdoors. 

Sometimes dementia caregivers find that the outdoors, even a yard attached to a house, can become 

an anxiety provoking situation when they care for someone with dementia.  Finding a way to balance safety with the obvious pluses of an outdoor experience is the key.

Dementia Book Review: Buffalo Lockjaw

We don't usually think of dementia as a secondary topic for a novel but Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames provides an exception.  A first novel for Mr. Ames, published in April 2009 by Hyperion, tells the story of James Fitzroy returning to his hometown of Buffalo, NY during a chilling winter.

Waiting for James were all the local people who stayed behind but most importantly his parents:  his mother, has taken a turn for the worse in her dementia and his father who is coping with her illness and the fact that she is in a nursing home.

Alzheimer's disease: New Eye Tests May Speed Diagnosis

Last week I had the pleasure to be one of the speakers at the Greater NJ Alzheimer's Association Annual Education conference in Somerset, NJ.  It was a terrific conference and one of the highlights was learning that there are two new eye tests in development that may assist in early diagnosis of the disease.

Dementia Goes Green?

In honor of Earth day today, I started thinking about being green and whether it even applies to dementia caregiving.  Here is what I found....

Dementia & PET Scans: 5 Facts

Today we have a guest post from Kat Sanders from the MRI Tech Health Blog.  She gives us some valuable info on PET scans and how they may be helpful in dementia.  Read on.....

Dementia Book Review: I'm Still Here

I'm still enjoying the recent group of books that have come out lately about the dementia or Alzheimer's experience.  I am slowly getting to all of them.  I want to recommend one of the new books by John Zeisel, PhD called, I'm Still Here:  A Breakthrough Approach To Understanding Someone Living With Alzheimer's.

Dementia Care: Using The Past To Help In The Present

Knowing a person's past and all the details about them is a great strategy for helping a person with dementia cope with the present moment.  Using this valuable information, a dementia caregiver can assist the person with dementia to spend quality time that has meaning.....to them.  An easy way to do this is to make "reminiscence boxes". 

Dementia Down Under - Dementia Resources From Queensland

We are all finding answers together to the dementia caregiving challenges.  I received a recent email from a colleague in Queensland Australia about the Dementia Behavior Management Advisory Service (DBMAS) that they have created to help dementia caregivers.  Here is what she had to say.....

Dementia Care Meets Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) - Part 3: Mind/Body Medicine

Using CAM or Complementary & Alternative Medicine in dementia care can broaden the range of tools we have at our disposal as caregivers to comfort, calm and allow the person with dementia more control over their situation.  Trying the techniques may also help us to raise their self-esteem in the process.  So far, we have defined CAM therapies and given reasons on why they may be a good match to use in persons with dementia.

Our purpose today is to talk about one of the 4 Domains of Knowledge within Complementary & Alternative Medicine:  the group of practices called "Mind/Body Medicine".