Starting July 1, 2011, The Alzheimer’s Association Western and Central Washington State Chapter will officially have a new President and Chief Executive Officer. Bob Le Roy will succeed former Executive Director Nancy Dapper, who left the organization in October 2010. Patricia Lee Hunter, MSW, has been serving as Interim Executive Director.
“We considered many extraordinary candidates in the search for our Chapter’s new CEO,” said Barbara J. Shaw, Board Chair of the Western and Central Washington State Chapter. “Bob brings more than 30 years of experience in the non-profit and private sectors and has earned a reputation as a trusted leader. Equally important, he shares our passion for our mission. Bob is the right CEO to lead the strategies we have in place to help raise concern and awareness about Alzheimer’s disease as well as advancing public policy, accelerating research and enhancing care and support.”
Profile of Bob Le Roy, the Chapter’s new President and CEO
Le Roy is currently the CEO of the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Alzheimer’s disease is projected to rise dramatically as the baby boomer generation starts to turn 65 and enters the stage of life where an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is most common.
Prior to the Alzheimer’s Association, Le Roy spent 17 years in a variety of leadership roles with the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., including 5 years with the Snohomish County Chapter based in Everett.
One of Le Roy’s biggest challenges will be to raise the public profile of a disease currently affecting 110,000 Washingtonians, 5.4 million nationwide, and those numbers are anticipated to triple by 2050.
Cascade Park welcome Le Roy to Washington’s Alzheimer battle. We are looking forward to what we will accomplish together.
Sometimes art is the best way of expressing what can’t be said in words, even when the subject revolves around forgetting what you want to express.
She’s an 83-year-old matriarch, queen of the family and fiercely independent. She’s also been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and her family must make the difficult decision of how to care for her.
Rose is the beloved main character of “Assisted Living,” which makes its West Coast premiere at Sandy Actors Theatre on June 3. Though the subject matter is serious, director Jim Wilhite says the story is filled with humor.
Artistic works, from books and movies to music and plays, can be very effective at providing social commentary and spurring debate. Consider the countless stories that explore the complex issue of race from the different angles of segregation, equality, socio-economics, and justice.
The issue of health and the choices we must inevitably make as we get older are no different. There are many philosophical debates about how an elderly person should be cared for. There are many more practical debates…
Health challenges come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but Alzheimer’s usually manifests with the same tremendous consequences for the individual and their loved ones. When it comes to dealing with patients, communication is key. It’s important to strike that balance between taking your cue from the patient (LISTENING) and making the decisions that you know are right (EVEN and ESPECIALLY when they are TOUGH).
But studying and learning about Alzheimer’s from care-giving trainers, textbooks, and the health-care industry can at times bog you down in all of the “facts” and “details,” making it hard to remember the emotions and the people behind the disease and its symptoms. Sometimes, a creative tool for learning and expressing ideas about Alzheimer’s is a much needed interjection among the plethora of hard science, research, and techniques.
So a couple years ago, Rich Rubin, a retired primary care physician in the Portland area created a work of art based upon the patients and families that he had cared for.
When he first started writing the play, Rubin said the tone was serious and even a bit somber. Then something interesting happened. Feisty and vibrant, Rose took over. The more he wrote, the funnier the story became. It was even uplifting.
“I imagine that it might provoke some discussion of the issues,” Rubin said. “This question of aging … how family deals with it.”
“Assisted Living” was recently selected as one of two winners in the new play contest at the Neil Simon Festival in Utah, dubbed in its review as “hilarious, moving and Simonesque.” The play was first produced at Adobe Theater in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2009.
Do you have any thoughts on how to create a work of art to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s or another cause such as traumatic brain injury? Share them with us on our Facebook page.
Brain injury is a terrible fate. You are still alive, but you have lost something precious that made you who you were. Now you are a different person and must continue moving forward in life… but you’re lost and don’t know where you’re going…
For those who are already lost, rehabilitation is the only path. But along that path, one of the most important things needed is hope. Hope that one day you will make it to the end of a difficult journey and have a better life, even if it never be like it was before the accident.
Physical therapy, and the success that it has helped bring about with TBI survivors, is a powerful symbol of that hope.
DJ, a 15-year-old Alger Middle School student, was hit by a car five and a half years ago. He suffered a broken left femur, a severe neck injury, internal bruising and a traumatic brain injury.
Since the accident, he has had to relearn everything: how to sit up, swallow food, feed himself, talk and, now, how to walk.
”Somebody was a little bit more stubborn than what the doctors thought,” said his mom, Lisa Shockey. She recalled how medical staff first predicted DJ would not survive more than 24 hours and, if he did, he would be “a vegetable.”
DJ, asked how he has managed to come so far, had a ready response.
”I never give up,” he said, his words coming slow but sure. “I didn’t give up on life.”
DJ will be one of nine eighth-graders from Alger’s POHI program — for physically and otherwise health-impaired students — taking part in the end-of-school ceremony Thursday (June 2) with the 150 general education students. The crossing-over ceremony marks their transition to Ottawa Hills High School.
”I’m so excited for him,” said Liesha Crawford. who has taught DJ for four years. “He really, really, really has learned more than we ever thought he would.”
Back in March, we wrote a powerful testimony of TBI survivor Kory Christensen. These cases show two different cases of people moving forward on the path of recovery. The ultimate goal is for them to develop the skills to be able to function in and integrate with society. These people are still very young. Giving up is not an option because they still have so much more life to live. One of the most important things that we can do is provide the resources, environment, and support for them to be able to reclaim the life that was stolen for them.
At times, in some of the darkest moments of the struggle, it is easy for people to lose all hope… to give up and say “I can’t do it.”
Being a brain trauma victim is a weird thing. You go from being someone people can tell you about but whom you can’t imagine being (and don’t remember being), to learning almost everything over again — walking, eating, handwriting. The death of your dad.
Three weeks or so after my skiing accident and the following coma, I was coming around and knew something was wrong with my dad. But I didn’t know what. That’s when my mom and sister had to tell me he died a few months ago.
I was fully present for his end days, but the brain hadn’t yet found a path to that information. I sat that night alone in my hospital room and remembered it all, reliving his death and feeling bad about making my family tell me the “news” all over again. There’s a job no one should have…
…I received help from a dozen or so workers at RIO, not to mention the employees at Legacy Emanuel, the first hospital I was at for two-plus weeks. I don’t remember being there, but I appreciate the care just the same. I owe the employees at these Portland places big kudos for all the meaningful work they do.
I’m about four months out from my ski accident and coma now and have been home since mid-February. Every day there is a new discovery and a new challenge. In addition to actual therapy, I find therapy in writing a journal because the writer side of me stayed put. You are who you are, it seems.
Though I am thrilled, and massively relieved, to be home with my husband and two small boys, I still find myself missing the positive people I first “awoke” to. And I am forever grateful for all that they and so many others have done.
Hope is everywhere. You just have to remember to look.
Into the last full week of the month of May, let’s take a moment to briefly reflect on this month’s Older Americans Month. It is a time for us to remember and appreciate what our elderly have done for us. It is a time for us to show support for them as they did for us when we were younger.
Every year the Administration on Aging (AoA) designates a particular theme as the central idea for Older Americans Month. This year the theme is Older Americans: Conecting the Community, highlighting how our seniors empower our communities, the reversal of how we as a community should be helping them. This inverse dynamic is a key reason of WHY it is so important to give back to those who came before us.
In addition, this year’s theme also emphasizes the “many ways technology is helping older Americans live longer, healthier and more engaged lives.”
The end of May is coming up, but there’s still a week left for you to show your elders how much you love, appreciate, and support them.
Take your elders out for a nice dinner, or make your own video with them. Go out on a limb and try out video games with them. In the past we talked about how video games help to create a bridge between generations. It might feel weird at first, but you might be surprised when you find yourself outclassed by your grandma!
As a major stakeholder in the fight against dementia, it’s always very inspiring for us to see groundbreaking discoveries. The European Inventor Award,is the most prestigious prize for innovation in Europe, was recently awarded to Christine Van Broeckhoven for her dementia research.
Broeckhoven pioneered a method for identifying Alzheimer’s genes, leading the way for modern drugs and treatments to combat dementias such as Alzheimer’s. During her research, she discovered that patients with Down’s syndrome developed similar amyloid plaques – protein fragments that accumulate between the nerve cells (neurons) in the brain – to those with Alzheimer’s disease.
Van Broeckhoven took a chance and focused her research on chromosome 21, and it paid off in the form of several major contributions to understanding and combating Alzheimer’s.
She discovered a mutation in the Flemish and Austrian amyloid precursor protein genes on chromosome 21 in Alzheimer’s patients which causes the proteins to aggregate in the brain tissue.
She and her team also identified progranulin as a second common gene for frontal temporal lobar degeneration in which dominant loss-of-function mutations cause neurodegeneration.
Furthermore, they demonstrated genetic and clinical heterogeneity, with progranulin contributing to frontal temporal lobar degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease.
The social costs of Alzheimer’s disease in 2010 were nearly $650 billion. Thus, anything to help delay onset even by a year would dramatically reduce these costs… a very desirable outcome.
New research is emerging all the time to strengthen the somewhat unusual connection between vascular disease and memory impairment.
Vascular dementia has long been acknowledged as the second-most common form of dementia, after Alzheimer’s. Research dating back to the late 1960s showed notably increased hypertension in those diagnosed with senile dementia.
When impaired blood flow to parts of the brain deprives its cells of necessary food and oxygen, vascular dementia is likely to manifest. The diagnosis may be clearest after a major stroke blocks a large blood vessel, thus obstructing the flow to a major portion of the brain.
A new study explores the relationship in greater depth:
This study shows that silent vascular disease is really common as we get older and it influences our thinking abilities,” said Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology in the School of Medicine at UC Davis and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “We’re beginning to realize that vascular disease plays a major role in Alzheimer’s disease — they go together.”
The study findings are based on data from participants in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The initiative tracks individuals who are normal, those who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and people with Alzheimer’s disease using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and laboratory and cognitive testing to track changes in their cognitive status…
…Cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis, is also common in the elderly, and causes “white matter hyperintensities,” regions of damaged brain tissue that look like white-hot areas on MRI scans. The purpose of the study was to better understand the relationship between white matter hyperintensities and the extent to which they precede, coincide with or follow short-term changes in cognitive functioning…
…All of the participants’ baseline cognitive functioning was established using clinical diagnostic evaluation, including the Mini Mental State Exam and the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale. Criteria for the normal group included no evidence of depression, mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Individuals were included in the MCI category if they had a subjective memory complaint or objective memory loss, among other measures. Participants with Alzheimer’s disease met nationally accepted criteria for probable Alzheimer’s disease.
Participants whose white matter hyperintensities were significantly above average at the beginning of the study lost more points each year in cognitive testing than those whose white matter hyperintensities were average at baseline. Those with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease at baseline had additional declines on their cognitive testing each year, meaning that the presence of white matter hyperintensities and MCI or Alzheimer’s disease together added up to even faster and steeper cognitive decline. In addition, participants who were older at baseline saw faster declines over time in their Mini Mental State Exam scores.
The researchers found that, at the outset of the study, the extent of white matter hyperintensities was associated with greater subsequent declines in global cognition over a one-year period.
Programs for elders with disabilities have experienced severe budget reductions over the course of the last two years. However, despite the glaring considerations of the legislature that are coming up, a new ray of hope has just appeared.
At least $182 million in new revenue has become available through the “tax amnesty” program. Join us is asking for funds to be allocated from this source to help restore a small portion of the severe reductions in elderly support.
$20 million to restore 2% of the 10% reduction in home care hours
$1.1 million to restore reductions in the Senior Citizens’ Services Act
$5 million to bridge the Part D pharmacy co-pay until federal relief begins
$7 million to maintain parity in health care coverage for agency home care workers
$4.4 million to restore eyeglasses and hearing aids in Medicaid program
$3.5 million to protect choice for DD people in Adult Day Health
The $42 million restoration using state funds would generate a matching amount of about $35 million in federal Medicaid.
Please phone, email and visit with your legislators and ask them to fund these essential programs. Please call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and ask your two representatives, one senator and the Governor to help our elderly in need.
Adult day health (ADH) has been moved under the COPES 1915(c) waiver. For some time, advocates in the field of ADH have voiced their opposition because there are many people in need of day health services who participate under the developmental disabilities (DD) waiver. This recent move would force people to leave DD for COPES, causing excess administrative headaches, delayed care, and unnecessary strain with no benefit.
Some estimates put that number as high as around 50% of our total ADH enrollment.
What this means is that those vulnerable people are to be forced out of an essential service with no alternative. Some are proposing an alternative program for people under a DD waiver, but this would require millions of dollars from the DD system.
On a larger scale, this also calls into question the viability of maintaining adult day health on a widespread scale if we lose half of our enrollment.
With the state legislature in talks for the final version of the budget, it is crucial now more than ever for us to speak up regarding ADH services.
There are two steps you can take:
Send the message below to the people on the list, as well as your legislators if they are not on there
THEN, call the Legislative Hotline with the same message, 1-800-562-6000.
Sample Message
Please do not force our DD families out of their adult day health program and left with no alternative. To do so would be unfair and unwise. We saw the harm done July 2009 when over 900 people were forced out of adult day health. The consequences were tragic until the federal court intervened. Please maintain the current status of adult day health unless an appropriate alternative is provided for our participants who live with developmental disabilities. For all families who care for a frail adult, adult day health is a lifeline.
Research has consistently shown some link between shared genetic history and the development of dementia. [1] But while there is not yet a cure for the memory killer, there are opportunities for people to help move towards one by participating in research. There are a number of studies aimed at analyzing families and getting to the root of the genetic source.
Good if your family has two or more living members with Alzheimer’s disease or symptoms of serious memory loss. See the NCRAD Study Brochure for more information.
Seeking answers and clues in the development late-onset Alzheimer’s, this study is available for a family with two or more living siblings diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after the age of 60 AND ALSO and a third diagnosed with memory loss after 50 OR without symptoms of memory loss over 60 years. View the LOAD Study Brochure to learn more.
You may be eligible for this if you have a biological parent or sibling with Alzheimer’s caused by a known mutation. To find out more see the DIAN Study brochure.
The event will feature keynote speaker Lisa Brummel. Lisa is Senior Vice President of HR at Microsoft and co-owner of the Seattle Storm. In 2010 she was named one of the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “Women of Influence.”
Lisa will speak about how Alzheimer’s disease is affecting the baby boomer generation and business and how together we can help change the trajectory and impact of this disease. All proceeds directly benefit the Alzheimer’s Association, Western & Central Washington State Chapter, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
This event is complimentary with a suggested donation of $150 per person.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Hyatt at Olive 8, Seattle 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM
To reserve your table or seats, contact Karen Aparicio at 206-529-3865 or karen.aparicio@alzwa.org.
