Getting the word out on caregiving

Rick Lauber knows a lot about caregiving for older people and much of that knowledge is based on personal experience.

Lauber, an Edmontonian, acted as caregiver for both his mother, who had Parkinson’s disease and leukemia, and his father, an Alzheimer’s sufferer.

Since then he has been attempting to help other caregivers by sharing what he learned as a result of his experiences.

In 2010, Self-Counsel Press published his book the Caregiver's Guide for Canadians.

In the book, Lauber describes his own caregiving experiences and provides recommendations for other prospective, new and current caregivers (including adult children, friends, spouses and/or partners).

“I like to think that my book has been written from a very personal perspective,” he has said. “There are other books on the market about caregiving and a number of conditions, but a lot of them are written by professionals. So my book offers a more everyday, anecdotal experience.”

The book is intended to provide encouragement and support for caregivers, along with practical advice on how to care for elders in need. It deals with issues such as balancing caregiver responsibilities with personal life, applying for guardianship and/or trusteeship hire a professional caregiver should the need arise and when a move to assisted living is necessary.

The Caregiver's Guide for Canadians is available at Chapters bookstores, at Amazon.ca, and from the Self-Counsel Press web site. The price is $17.95.

In addition to promoting the book, Lauber also works to get his message about caregiving out through writing articles, giving interviews, a blog and a twitter account, @cdncaregiver.

“I do see that more resources are becoming available,” he remarked. “That’s a good thing. But I think a lot of the resources are still difficult to connect with for family caregivers. I’m not sure why, whether it’s a lack of advertising or a lack of public knowledge, but it is unfortunate because the resources are there to help.”

Senior projects tackle bullying, isolation and abuse

Bullying, social isolation and elder abuse are not what we have in mind for our latter years, but they are realities older people face.

"Bullying in senior residences is a common response when the give and take of communal living is not properly addressed,” according to Karen Sheridan of the South East Edmonton Seniors Association (SEESA).

To address the problem, the association has created the Senior to Senior Anti-Bullying project. The project recently received funding through the Government of Canada's New Horizons For Seniors Program for development an anti-bullying toolkit. The toolkit will be used to educate and equip elderly persons living in seniors' residences, as well as residences' staff to better deal with offensive behaviour and confrontation.

“SEESA began the for-seniors by-seniors project to explore how residents can co-create the kind of communities in which they want to live," said Sheridan.

Social isolation among senior caregivers is the focus of the Caregiver Connection Centre project of the Alberta Caregivers Association, which also recently received New Horizons funding. It will provide a centralized gathering place where caregivers can connect with each other for mutual support and information sharing.

“Caregiving can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be very challenging and isolating,” said Anna Mann, executive director of the Caregivers Association. “Connecting with fellow caregivers makes a huge difference - you can almost see a burden being lifted off their shoulders."

The two Alberta organizations are receiving a total of $42,890 through the New Horizons program.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Bernard Betel Centre is tacking the problem of elder abuse through art.  

As part of its Empowerment and Expression: Senior Voices through Art initiative,

the centre will organize town hall meetings to promote the social inclusion of seniors through art projects that will focus on elder abuse awareness.

The centre's activities include designing and creating an arts-centred elder abuse awareness curriculum based on best practices. Other activities focus on recruiting and training experienced senior volunteer artists, creating outreach materials to disseminate information about elder abuse and displaying seniors' arts projects to make them widely available to the public.

The Bernard Betel Centre was awarded $22,000 in New Horizons funding for the  project.

Memory worries prompt thousands to take online test

If you worry that your sketchy memory might be a sign of imminent Alzheimer’s disease, you are not alone.

Some 20,000 people have done an online memory test since it was launched in May by Cogniciti Inc., the company reported yesterday.
The free 20-minute assessment, available at www.cogniciti.com, is intended to help aging adults worried about their memory determine whether or not they need to discuss their concerns with a doctor.

"A great many Canadians are finding it tough to decide when to bring their memory concerns to their doctors," said Cogniciti president Mike Meagher. "Our mission with the test is to get the right people in to see the doctor and reduce unnecessary visits by the worried well."

The test was developed by clinical neuropsychologists and cognitive scientists at Baycrest Health Sciences, affiliated with the University of Toronto, and its Rotman Research Institute. Designed for adults aged 50-79, it comprises a series of game-like mental challenges that tap into memory and attention performance, including remembering the location of hidden objects and matching names to faces.

People who take the test receive an immediate brain health score upon completion to see where they rank compared to other adults with same age and education.

According to Cogniciti, the vast majority of test takers scored in the normal, healthy range for their age/education, with only two percent having below normal results.

The company also noted that 41 per cent of participants were in their 60s, 64 per cent were women, and 64 per cent had a college or university degree.

Close to one-quarter (24 per cent) of Cogniciti test takers stated on the pre-test health questionnaire that they had significant memory concerns, yet only 2.1 per cent had cognitive score results below the normal range for their age and education. This finding confirmed how widespread memory concerns are in Canada with older adults, said Meagher, and how difficult it is for most adults to determine on their own whether their forgetfulness is simply normal aging or a more serious issue.

Those who do score in the low range are encouraged to print their report and take it to their doctor to start the conversation about their memory concerns.

"For those who score poorly on the test, it doesn't necessarily mean you have dementia or Alzheimer's. Getting checked by a doctor is the best way to rule out other health problems that could be causing your cognitive issues," said Dr. Angela Troyer, program director of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Health at Baycrest, and a lead member of the project team that developed the online test.

"If it turns out that you do have a significant problem with your memory, then early diagnosis along with science-based education and interventions will help you maintain your cognitive health and independence for as long as possible, and enable you and your family to plan for the care and support you'll need in future." 
Founded in 2010 by Baycrest Health Sciences and MaRS Discovery District, Cogniciti Inc. is a for-profit company that provides brain health assessment, diagnosis, treatment and coping tools.