Make a New Year’s resolution to join a support group:
January 28, 11 – 12:30, 300 Office Park Drive, Suite 225
January 28, 6:30 – 8, Trussville First Baptist Church.
M4A is hosting A Break to Educate, Thursday, February 20, 10 – 1, Mountain Chapel Church, Oneonta. Contact Rebecca Walden at rwalden@M4A.org.
Queso & Questions, Thursday, February 27, Avondale Brewery upstairs event room. This is the ACA Jr. Board’s annual education event. Dr. David Standaert, Chairman of the UAB Department of Neurology, will be our guest speaker. The event is free with a Taco Mama taco bar and beer tickets. Reservations are requested www.alzca.org.
Stress Busting Program for Family Caregivers, 9:30 – 11 am, for 9 weeks starting March 2, at Caring Days in Tuscaloosa. Contact Nikki Poe at nikki.poe@westal.org
Rojo is hosting a % of sales event to raise money for ACA’s Jr. Board and research, Tuesday, March 10, 5 – midnight. Rojo is a vibrant gathering place serving Latin & American dishes. 2921 Highland Ave, Birmingham.
Ales for Alzheimer’s Saturday, March 21, at Avondale Brewery. The Jr. Board’s major spring fundraiser is a family friendly event featuring beer, food, music, a raffle and auction. All proceeds benefit ACA’s Pre Doctoral Scholars Program in Alzheimer’s Research at UAB.
The UAB School of Nursing is offering a conference, “Strategies for Preventing & Managing Difficult Dementia Behaviors”, with Rita Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FGSA, FAAN, Friday, March 27, 8:30 – 3:30. See attached flyer.
News to know:
In a January 16, 2020 Psychology Today blog post, Alzheimer’s advocate Greg O’Brien spoke with Margaret Rice Moir, who is writing about her experience losing her husband to Alzheimer’s disease. “Love becomes more complicated, intimacy more challenging, patience more ephemeral… So, lover, mother, nursemaid, nag, we caregivers are lost somewhere, floating in and out among our many, often conflicting, roles. While love can be ever so much more challenging in these times, it can also be richer, deeper, and more mature. And in our best moments, there is joy in that.”
A UAB researcher is looking at the drug, idazoxan, to see if it can be used to effectively treat early-stage Alzheimer’s. The drug was originally developed to treat depression but was too ineffective to win FDA approval.
Learn more here. https://www.wvtm13.com/article/researchers-at-uab-develop-possible-breakthrough-for-alzheimers/30567454
A January 16, 2020 Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis news release announced that the NIA committed $29 million over the next five years for ongoing research through the DIAN (Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network). UAB is a collaborating site. Three new research initiatives will continue work on identifying changes in the brain of people with genetic mutations indicating very high risk of AD, as the disease starts and progresses.
A January 17, 2020 STAT First Opinion piece by science journalist Donna Jackson Nakaza relied on her own experience with several different diseases which affected her cognition. At the time, she could not fathom that inflammation in her body might be a cause of her cognitive issues. Inflammation has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.
Rita Jablonski, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA has updated her blog with a post, What is the difference between decisional capacity and decisional competence? Financial exploitation is a real problem that impacts persons living with dementia and their families. Families struggle with balancing independence with providing safety.https://makedementiayourbitch.com/2020/01/23/decisional-capacity-or-competence/. Rita is a nurse practitioner, researcher, tenured professor, and former family caregiver. She is best known for non-drug strategies to address dementia-related behaviors.
Screening For Dementia in Primary Care to Improve Early Detection: Should primary care physicians screen all older adults for Alzheimer’s? A new study examines the pros and cons of dementia screening. Discover more here
Friendship Place is a new respite program opening at St. Simon Peter Episcopal Church, in Pell City. The program opens January 28, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, from 10 – 2. See attached flyer. Contact Melinda Knepper 205-884-0877 or director.friendshipplace@gmail.com.
Essay contest for teens: Hilarity for Charity is sponsoring Humans of Dementia: An Intergenerational Storytelling Contest with support from AARP, Generations United, Memory Well, and Associated Collegiate Press and National Scholastic Press Association. To be eligible, the writer must be currently enrolled in high school or college in the U.S. or Canada and the story must feature someone currently living with or who has passed away from Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia. Learn more on the Humans of Dementia submission webpage. The deadline is March 13. Humans of Dementia: An Intergenerational Storytelling Contest with support from AARP, Generations United, Memory Well, and Associated Collegiate Press and National Scholastic Press Association
Did you know? Planet Fundraiser is an app that lets you give back to non-profits, schools, and groups simply by taking a picture of receipts from merchants you already shop at. You shop and participating merchants donate to the charity of your choice.