The Administration on Aging (AoA) within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) commissioned a supplemental issue of Generations through its National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center (NADRC) in an effort to advance the establishment and enhancement of dementia-capable home and community-based systems. It is titled Supporting People with Dementia and Their Caregivers in the Community. The Generations supplement is comprised of 18 articles authored by experts in a broad range of dementia care and advocacy topics.

This special issue is dedicated to the delivery of information on a range of topics of significance for people living with dementia and their caregivers.  Intended to put dementia care in context, this issue provides insight into evidence-based interventions, person-centered/directed dementia care, underserved and vulnerable populations, and other topics for providing effective home and community-based services.

The Generations publication is FREE.

To learn more about the work that the NADRC is doing, go to www.nadrc.acl.gov

“Louise Lowman Lee, at home in Ellijay, Ga., is a member of the Chastain family, which has an astonishing rate of Alzheimer’s.”

“LLIJAY, Ga. — Louise Lowman Lee remembers stories about her great-grandmother being put in a fenced area in the backyard, so she could wander safely. She watched her mother patiently care for her grandmother, who lost her reason, inhibitions, and ability to care for herself. Then Alzheimer’s disease gradually eroded the brain of her devoted mother, too.

“But when Lee and two of her sisters brought their mother, Mildred Chastain Lowman, to Emory University in Atlanta in 2006, they weren’t thinking about the family tree. They were just looking for the best possible treatment.

“Dr. Allan Levey asked them to come into a conference room with a genetic counselor and other members of his team. “We’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

“‘We were sort of stunned,’ recalled Sherry Dunn, another sister. ‘We were looking at each other like, “What are they talking about?”’

“Levey explained that he had seen other Chastains in his clinic over the years and had begun studying their pattern of Alzheimer’s inheritance.”

Read this STAT News article in its entirety, click here.

“Mary Read, who began a supportive social group for people who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease after she received her only early-onset diagnosis, poses with her dog, Princess, in the Lititz home she shares with her husband, George.” – ANDY BLACKBURN | Staff Photographer – LNP – Always Lancaster

“Mary Read had been a nurse for years, using her extensive training to care for patients in nursing homes and doctors’ offices.

“Researchers find that dementia patients who engage in activities such as gathering photographs and talking about family see improvements in their quality of life and are less agitated. – Owen Franken/Getty Images”

by Shirley S. Wang

“In nursing homes and residential facilities around the world, health care workers are increasingly asking dementia patients questions: What are your interests? How do you want to address us? What should we do to celebrate the life of a friend who has passed away?

“The questions are part of an approach to care aimed at giving people with memory loss and other cognitive problems a greater sense of control and independence. At its core is the idea that an individual with dementia should be treated as a whole person and not ‘just’ a patient.

“Scientists sometimes call this approach an ecopsychosocial intervention. The goal is to create environments that better meet patients’ psychological and emotional needs through strategies other than medication.”

Continue reading this article at NPR, click here.