Monthly Archives: July 2017

“New Technology Could Allow You or Your Parents to Age at Home” (AARP list)

Date
Posted by

This list by AARP of aging in place technologies was published in 2014.  Brain Support Network volunteer Denise Dagan looked it over and found that the list is still worth reading, even today.

Most of the items on the AARP list are Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS).  These are the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” devices.  Denise found a more recent review of PERS that said the best was Bay Alarm Medical.  (I’ll send that review separately.)  Of course the Lifeline system is available through many hospitals as reduced rates.  That’s the system our family used for many years.

A couple of the technologies on the AARP list are reminder systems like MedMinder and Reminder Rosie for people with mild cognitive impairment.

GrandCare caught Denise’s eye as the system does it all.  This is from their website:  “The heart of the GrandCare System is a large touchscreen in the residence which provides the individual with social communications, instructions, reminders, medication prompts, and web-based entertainment.  Caregivers access the system by logging in to the online Care Portal.  Optional wireless activity sensors, environmental sensors, and digital health devices can be added to the system as needed. These devices can be used to notify designated caregivers by phone, email, or text if anything seems amiss or if wellness readings fall out of range.”

Let us know if you are using any of these technologies or try them.

Here’s a link to the AARP list:

www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2014/is-this-the-end-of-the-nursing-home.html

New Technology Could Allow You or Your Parents to Age at Home
AARP Bulletin
by Sally Abrahms
March 2014

Robin

“Dying Words” (beautiful story from WBUR, June 13, 2017)

Date
Posted by

This is a beautiful story about words and an idea for those of us who have loved ones losing the ability to speak.

Alice Saunders had a close relationship with her father Arpiar Saunders.  When Alice was in her 20s, her father started mixing up words — pina colada for pinata, for example.  He was diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration, which can affect speech.  “As his vocabulary shrank, Arpy would endlessly repeat the words he still had.”  Eventually, “there were just two full phrases that her father could still say.  One was ‘proud to be your dad,’ and the other was ‘I love you.'”  Alice said:  “I’d get voicemails sometimes that was just like, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you’ for five minutes straight. That’s what he could say at the end.”  After her father died, Alice’s boyfriend gave her a flash drive of all of her father’s voicemails over the last year.

Perhaps those of us who have loved ones losing the ability to speak can find an idea here — record your family member speaking before their voice disappears.  I have a few hand-written notes from my father that he made before he lost the ability to write; those are very precious to me.

The full article is available online.  Plus there’s a six-minute audio story that aired on June 13, 2017 on WBUR (Boston) at the link:

www.wbur.org/kindworld/2017/06/13/kind-world-39-dying-words

Kind World #39: Dying Words
June 13, 2017
WBUR
by Erika Lantz

Robin

NYT story about adjusting to neurological decline

Date
Posted by
NYT story about adjusting to neurological decline
Though this New York Times article is about a former baseball pitcher Jim Bouton with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (a type of dementia), I think the article is of general interest.  The end of the article is about the wife and family identifying what the husband can still do, and adjusting around that.  This applies to all of us coping with neurological decline.

Here’s an excerpt:

His wife Paula “Kurman calls his condition a pothole syndrome: Things will seem smooth, his wit and vocabulary intact, and then there will be a sudden, unforeseen gap in his reasoning, or a concept he cannot quite grasp.  … In her work with brain-damaged children, Kurman said, her boss would tell her to think about what remains, not what is lost. It is a lesson she applies now. Her husband can still make her laugh, still make her think. … And he can still pitch.  ‘You need to learn that the person is still that person, and you have to focus more on what he can do, rather than what he can’t do,’ she said. ‘And then you adjust.'”

Here’s a link to the full article:

Robin