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iPhone applications can help the autistic | The Autism News
By: Greg Toppo, USA Today
Leslie Clark and her husband have been trying to communicate with their autistic 7-year-old son, JW, for years, but until last month, the closest they got was rudimentary sign language.
He’s “a little bit of a mini-genius,” Clark says, but like many autistic children, JW doesn’t speak at all.
via iPhone applications can help the autistic | The Autism News.
Posted on May 28, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Autism |
Finding day care difficult for parents of autistic kids – Carroll County Times
When Lori Geiger enrolled her autistic son in day care three years ago, she hoped that interacting with children his age, he would improve his social development. For a while, it helped.
But Nicky, who is now 4, became increasingly curious as he grew in size, and keeping an eye on him became more of a challenge at the child-care center.
“He was all over the place; he was exploring, going in the toilet area, climbing on the tables,” said the Mount Airy mother of three. “The teachers couldn’t keep up with him.”
While the staff loved her son, they lacked the training to work with a special needs child, so last fall Geiger made the decision to pull Nicky out of day care.
via Carroll County Times: Westminster, Maryland.
Posted on May 26, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Autism |
Wandering – Alzheimer's Resource for Wandering | about.com
I recently learned about EmFinders™, a unique community elder care solution to the very frightening risk of wandering among those with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments. If you’re providing care to someone with Alzheimer’s and you’re worried that he or she might become lost, EmFinders™ could be a way to increase safety and give you peace of mind while providing care.
EmFinders™ is designed to provide rapid location of wandering and/or lost loved ones through fast, accurate, reliable, secure technology available across 95% of the nation. The EmFinders™ website has a section for caregivers explaining how this service can enhance eldercare. It also includes a section for law enforcement, stating that taxpayer money can be saved by reducing the resources spent by law enforcement locating the missing, and a section for community elder care facilities, since 10% of litigation brought against them is due to wandering incidents.
via Wandering – Alzheimer’s Resource for Wandering.
Posted on May 15, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Autism, Caregiving, Wandering |
Caregiving – Economic Value of Caregiving | about.com
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Question: What is the Economic Value of Caregiving?
Answer: AARP recently released a comprehensive report on the economic value of caregiving. If you are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s important to know how your informal caregiving affects our currently fragile economy. Consider these facts:
via Caregiving – Economic Value of Caregiving.
Posted on May 15, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Autism, Caregiving |
The psychological toll of early onset Alzheimer's disease – abc13.com (TX)
ABCNews MATT DAVIS, M.D.
Lisa Carbo knew something was wrong. The former registered nurse from Metairie, La., began experiencing difficulty in remembering how to perform various functions at her job. Multitasking became harder. Eventually she was written up for poor performance, prompting her to seek medical help.
Carbo was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in November 2007, at the age of 53.
Before her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Carbo had plans for her golden years. “I hoped to semi-retire, spend the rest of [my] life with someone, continue to be productive, travel,” she said. “I love animals, I had planned to do a lot more volunteering with animal shelters.”
via The psychological toll of early onset Alzheimer’s disease – 5/13/09 – Houston News – abc13.com.
Posted on May 15, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Wandering |
Communicating Better With Someone Who Has Alzheimer's | Healthy and Green Living
By: Paula Spencer
It’s so easy to become frustrated when talking to someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s. It’s hard to know the “right” way to respond to the repetitive or odd things he sometimes says. You won’t be tongue-tied if you keep these simple communication techniques in mind.
via Communicating Better With Someone Who Has Alzheimer’s | Healthy and Green Living.
Posted on May 5, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Caregiving |
Television – HBO Documentaries Put Alzheimer’s Disease Under a Microscope – NYTimes.com
HBO, the pay-cable home to blood-sucking 173-year-olds, polygamous Mormons and stressed-out, therapy-seeking C.E.O.’s, is not the usual place for explanations of amyloid plaques, computer-rendered brain-imaging scans or distressing tales of a woman told she can never drive again. But as it does every few years, HBO will soon intrude on its largely fiction-oriented lineup of series and second-run Hollywood movies to deliver five prime hours of a multimillion-dollar public service health campaign. Starting May 10, in its most far-reaching initiative yet, HBO tackles Alzheimer’s disease.
via Television – HBO Documentaries Put Alzheimer’s Disease Under a Microscope – NYTimes.com.
Posted on May 3, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Caregiving |
My Turn: Coming Out to My Dad, Twice | Newsweek My Turn | Newsweek.com
“Hey there. Are you a man or a woman?” my father asked the stocky girl in navy-blue coveralls as we rode the elevator down to the hospital lobby. Eighty years old and wandering in the abyss of midstage Alzheimer’s, Dad used to pride himself on what he didn’t say. I, at 42, unmarried and the youngest of three brothers, was now his partial caretaker, making frequent trips across the Hudson to the hospital near my childhood home in New Jersey.
Until recently, Dad’s illness was all about frustration: he drove his mouse-gray Buick Century into cars that had stopped short, he got lost on trips to the store, he forgot his grandkids’ names. But this new phase of filter-free wonderment was relatively refreshing, if only for its lack of guile. That is, until he aimed it at me as I drove him home.
via My Turn: Coming Out to My Dad, Twice | Newsweek My Turn | Newsweek.com.
Posted on May 3, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Caregiving |
Alzheimer's Reading Room: Alzheimer's Caregivers Go it Alone: Alzheimer's Reading Room
Here are two things I learned while reading that report.
* Most Caregivers go it alone.
* Only half (50 percent) rely on an outside service like a home health aide.
* Only 45 percent rely on family or friends for help in providing care to the patient.
As far as I am concerned, both numbers are too low. Although, it does have me wondering what came first the chicken or the egg?
Are Caregivers going it alone because they are failing to ask for help? Too overwhelmed to seek outside help? Are they failing to ask their family for help?
Or, are family members and friends all to happy to stand on the sideline for the reasons I mentioned in my article?
via Alzheimer’s Reading Room: Alzheimer’s Cargiver’s Go it Alone.
Posted on May 1, 2009 | No Comments | Category: Alzheimer's, Caregiving |