Care For Dementia, Alzheimers Patients Includes Support For Families
News outlets report on strategies for ensuring the well-being of both patients and their family members.
Kaiser Health News:
Awake, And Safe, All Night Despite Dementia
In her Manhattan apartment, Josephina Deltejo is trying to coax her 84-year-old mother Brunhilda Ortiz to get ready to leave the house. As she does most nights, Deltejo makes up a story to get her mother, who has dementia, to cooperate. In Spanish, Deltejo asks her mother if she would rather go to Miami or the Dominican Republic. “She says she wants to go to the Dominican Republic,” Deltejo translates, and then she helps the older woman gather her things and go downstairs to a waiting van. The driver will bring her mother to the Elderserve At Night program at the Hebrew Home At Riverdale in the Bronx. It’s a kind of day camp–but at night, for people like Ortiz who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. (Gotbaum, 3/9)
NPR:
Supporting A Spouse With Alzheimer's: 'I Don't Get Angry Anymore'
Greg and Mary Catherine O'Brien will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary next month. She knows him better than anyone — his moods and sense of humor, his devotion to their three children and his love of Cape Cod. When Greg was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's five years ago, Mary Catherine had already started to notice little differences in his behavior, she says. Now, as his symptoms continue to worsen, she takes a moment to reflect on how the disease is changing their marriage, sometimes in unexpected ways. (Hersher, 3/7)
