Alzheimer’s disease – Page 4 – Designing for Aged Care

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, The Built Environment

Experience how a person with dementia grapple with complex flooring patterns

Posted on December 29, 2015December 29, 2015 by Joanna Sun

This has been going around the web for the last couple of weeks and everyone has been all over it trying to find the panda among the snowman or the cat among the owls. It has been a fun experience for most of us and for some it may be quite frustrating. Some people who are able to find the cat or the panda have posted bragged about how quickly they may have found it on facebook.

We know this happens and we talk about how confusing complex flooring patterns can be for people with dementia. They may not be able to distinguish the area and may have difficulties walking around. Imagine if you had dropped your keys on the floor or a purse on a carpet

It would be like looking for the animals in these pictures. See if you can find the panda in the first picture and the cat in the second. .

1. Find the Panda above in the midst of the snowman.

2. Find the cat in the sea of owls.

Images created by Gergely “Dudolf” Dudás and more images can be found on Dudolph’s Facebook page.

Researchers are still trying to work out how the brain tries to categorise objects. The latest breakthrough came from Monash University where researchers are trying to utilise a new imaging technique known as the semantic wavelet-induced frequency-tagging (SWIFT) to help us find the answers (Koenig-Robert et al. 2015).

If you are caring for someone with dementia or working with people with dementia, please stop and have a think about the type of flooring and perhaps these principles from Prof. Richard Fleming and Kirsty Bennett, University of Wollongong might come in really handy in the decision making process.

Reduces unhelpful stimulation
Optimise helpful stimulation
Support movement and engagement

Just trying to find the panda and the cat may be somewhat easy or really quite frustrating for some. It will take a couple of seconds at least and that is the situation that that people experiecing cognitive impairment have to grapple with when they come up against environments of complex designs. We have to take our current experience with hunting for the panda or cat and multiply that by ten or even a hundred folds. So before you choose that intricately design carpet for your flooring, please stop and think if the choice you are making is an inclusive one for people with dementia.

References:

Fleming R, Bowles J. Units for the confused and disturbed elderly: Development, Design, Programmimg and Evaluation. Australian Journal on Ageing. 1987 November;6(4):25-8.

Fleming R, Forbes I, Bennett K. Adapting the ward for people with dementia. Sydney: NSW Department of Health; 2003.

Koenig-Robert R, VanRullen R, Tsuchiya N (2015) Semantic Wavelet-Induced Frequency-Tagging (SWIFT) Periodically Activates Category Selective Areas While Steadily Activating Early Visual Areas. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144858.

An inspirational project by a local Singaporean Melissa Chan to support people with dementia and their caregivers in the community.

Melissa’s story

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment, Therapeutic Activities

Food Nostalgia Workshops, a deliciously fresh idea to support Dementia

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Joanna Sun

One of my fondest memories working in aged care in Australia was the talking about Christmas recipes with all the residents during this holiday season. For many of us who have slaved over the stovetop during the festive seasons, you know what I am talking about. To get that perfect Christmas fruitcake was a project months in the making. I usually worked the Christmas shifts and we would always get together and you could see all the ladies eyes lit up like the fairy lights on the Christmas tree as we chatted away about our favourite Christmas dishes, the delectable treats and without a doubt, everyone, literally all the ladies had some cooking tips and advice to share. Sometimes, even their families would join in the conversation and I had to pry myself out of the room haha. From Pavlovas, Dundee cakes, Christmas cakes, brandy butter to Medisterkaker. Everyone had something lovely to share. You can tell I love the Christmas season.

Anyway I found out that in the UK, Magna Vitae is working on a new health initiative to support people with dementia and their caregivers. Guess what? It’s all about food! In January 2016, they will be running a string of dementia friendly workshops known as ‘Feeding Memories’ for people with dementia and their caregivers in the UK.

This workshop certainly breathes innovation, food is such an important component in our daily lives. The workshop is a food reminiscence therapy programme, helping to ‘revive the senses’ through utilising food packaging from the past and it seems like there might be some cooking involved as well. It doesn’t stop there, the workshop has an inclusive and community aspect, sharing the importance of nutrition, diet and getting people socially engaged in their common love for food.

I’m really excited about the workshop and I hope that there will be more of these workshops to go around, especially in the Memory Cafes.

Anyway here’s wishing everyone Happy Holidays.

xoxo

Source: http://www.magnavitae.org/mvitae/about

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Memory Cafes: Working towards inclusion

Posted on December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 by Joanna Sun

No one person with dementia and their caregivers should be isolated, and a social program in the United Kingdom, America, some parts of Australia are doing just that. We all know that loneliness affects both the person with dementia and their caregivers. Studies have reported that isolation and loneliness can bring about lowered self-esteem, feeling of abandonment, and increase mortality rates, and these are but just some of the issues associated (Brotons & Marti 2003; Reijo et al. 2011; Goll et al. 2015). Even the UK Department of Health (2012) has recognised that loneliness is a major public issue and needs to be urgently addressed.

Just along the lines of government and major organisations, when one thinks Memory Cafe, we may have a schema of a 24-hour cafe with people running around to man the joint. Administrators and funders, I can imagine pinching themselves, great idea but what’s the cost? The gears will be moving in their heads thinking about all the capital involved and the manpower cost associated with it, not counting the overheads and getting the right people to be able to make coffee and run a cafe, followed by other operational issues of burnout, turnover manpower training and development.

This memory cafe is way ahead of the game. With a number of memory cafes popping up like peonies in full sun, this program only operates a few times a month depending on the cafe. It can be once a month or twice a month and time for an hour or more. It’s free for people living with cognitive impairment/dementia and their significant other, be it their spouse, partner, child or carer.

Just having a peek at the Facebook page of one of the memory cafes in America (Brown County: Click here to visit page), you can see images people sitting in small groups of eight working together and having fun with craft activities and in one post they even mentioned that they were putting together harvest recipes for a cookbook. Another photo has a heartwarming image of people sitting around, really relaxed and laid back enjoying Christmas carols performed by the NWTC choir.

It’s hard to find programs where both the person with dementia and their significant other can actually enjoy social activities. Most activity centres would boot the caregivers, expecting people to drop off the their loved one with dementia at the centre and leave. If you hang around, you might feel a bit out of place or in the way. Or a caregiver program where caregivers come together and the person with dementia gets allocated to an activities area.

It’s just great to see a program that is so warm and inclusive, where people can just come together and there’s no stigmatism, no funny looks, no barriers. You can share stories, ask questions and there’s no stigma, no judgemental looks, no nonsense. Everyone can just be themselves, enjoy a cuppa and have some fun. A program that provides an environment that supports movement and engagement, optimises helpful stimulation, creates a familiar social space for people to have the opportunity to be part of the community, allows people to be seen and to be part of something meaningful (Fleming et al. 2003).

Isn’t this what life is about, just being able to kick back, have a cuppa and a laugh with friends.

Anyway hoping to see them catch on in Asia as well in the coffee shops and dim sum cafes.

For more information about starting a memory cafe in your community, please refer to the links below.

UK: Memory Cafe

USA: Brown County Memory Cafe

Aus: Memory Lane Cafe

Reference:

Brotons M. and Marti P., 2003. Music therapy with Alzheimer’s patients and their family caregivers: a pilot project. Journal of Music Therapy, 40(2), pp.138-150.

Department of Health (2012) Caring for our future: reforming care and support. London: The Stationary Office. Retrieved fromhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/caring-for-our-future-reforming-care-and-support.

Fleming R, Bowles J. Units for the confused and disturbed elderly: Development, Design, Programmimg and Evaluation. Australian Journal on Ageing. 1987 November;6(4):25-8.

Fleming R, Forbes I, Bennett K. Adapting the ward for people with dementia. Sydney: NSW Department of Health; 2003.

Goll JC, Charlesworth G, Scior K, Stott J (2015) Barriers to Social Participation among Lonely Older Adults: The Influence of Social Fears and Identity. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0116664.

Reijo S. Tilvis, Venla Laitala, Pirkko E. Routasalo, and Kaisu H. Pitkälä, “Suffering from Loneliness Indicates Significant Mortality Risk of Older People,” Journal of Aging Research, vol. 2011, Article ID 534781, 5 pages,

Caregiving, International Campaigns, Research & Best Practice

Dementia Research Institute in Asia

Posted on December 13, 2015December 12, 2015 by Joanna Sun

Prime Minister announces funding for UK’s first National Dementia Research Institute – UK’s first Dementia Research Institute receive up to £150m of investment.

in 2006, it was announced that Dementia will be the next epidemic sweeping through Asia. Almost a decade on and numerous publications by academics and global organisations such as the World Health organisation and Alzheimer’s Disease International, little has been done in the areas of preventative measures of the condition. The condition now costing Asia billions of dollars and much suffering among caregivers is still seen to be a distant cousin of health issues such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Healthcare publications in Asia can still be seen making claims that dementia is reversible, and numerous clinicians are unaware that dementia is a terminal condition. Resulting in a large focus in the quantitative aspects, such as rehabilitation, life-prolonging procedures instead of focusing on qualitative; such as the maintenance of a person’s independence, dignity and overall quality of life.

More research is required in Asia to help find the balance between challenging cultural issues especially in the areas of prolonging life in dementia and maintaining a person’s quality of life. Perhaps in this technological age, Asia should come together to look into setting up collaborative research centres to work cohesively to find answers to culturally difficult care components for people with dementia and eventually find us a cure.

Reference

Prime Minister announces funding for UK’s first National Dementia Research Institute – Alzheimer’s Society

Dementia in the Asia Pacific Region: The Epidemic is Here

Looming dementia epidemic in Asia

Dementia in the Asia Pacific Region

International Campaigns, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Exercise may enhance plasticity of the adult brain

Posted on December 10, 2015December 13, 2015 by Joanna Sun

The Cell Press journal reported that a small study from the University of Pisa and the Neuroscience Institute, National Research Council (CNR) have found that exercise may improve the plasticity of the adult brain, which was thought to decline with age.

Physical activity may leave the brain more open to change | EurekAlert! Science News

Learning, memory, and brain repair depend on the ability of our neurons to change with experience. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 7 have evidence from a small study in people that exercise may enhance this essential plasticity of the adult brain.The findings focused on the visual cortex come as hopeful news for people with conditions including amblyopia (sometimes called lazy eye), traumatic brain injury, and more, the researchers say.”We provide the first demonstration that moderate levels of physical activity enhance neuroplasticity in the visual cortex of adult humans,” says Claudia Lunghi of the University of Pisa in Italy.”By showing that moderate levels of physical activity can boost the plastic potential of the adult visual cortex, our results pave the way to the development of non-invasive therapeutic strategies exploiting the intrinsic brain plasticity in adult subjects,” she adds.The plastic potential of the cerebral cortex is greatest early in life, when the developing brain is molded by experience. …

###This research has received funding from the European Research Council.Current Biology, Lunghi and Sale: “A cycling lane for brain rewiring” http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.026Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. For more information please visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive media alerts for Cell Press journals, contact press@cell.com.

Source: Physical activity may leave the brain more open to change | EurekAlert! Science News