jim henson

I heard on the radio today that country musician Glen Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

For those of us who may remember him from the 1960's and '70's, it is hard to believe that Campbell is now 75 years old.  He was diagnosed 6 months ago and is undertaking his farewell tour this summer.  His wife, Kim wanted people to know of his diagnosis lest they think he had lost his long time addiction battle with alcohol.

His final album, Ghost on the Canvas, is due out on August 30th.

I wanted to share an excellent article called Unlocking the Silent Prison about alternate methods of communicating with dementia patients.

Ohio State University's Michelle Bourgeois suggests that, in addition to communicating verbally, we try writing down important messages so the confused dementia patient can read them (instead of the caregiver having to repeat things over and over.)

She also suggests making a photo album of important family members ("then and now") and labeling them.  This helps the dementia patient understand that the "stranger" they see really is their little baby girl.

I think I'm going to try this with my mom, as she is having a difficult time understanding why she needs to be repeatedly cleaned up by her caregivers.

Alternate ways of communicating with challenging family members, for example, teaching pre-verbal children sign language, can be a breakthrough and a great help to caregivers.