Untangling Alzheimer’s The Guide for Families & Professionals...A presentation I attended in late April, was a refreshing change of pace. Author of the book of the same title,Tam Cummings, PhD, a nationally recognized Gerontologist offered an insightful and energetic program sponsored by Arden Courts; a national corporation that runs memory care communities. I attended the presentation with my wife Melissa, an occupational therapist by training who has worked in the field of educating professionals like herself.
As an Author/Speaker, I often find myself listening to content as well as analyzing presentation styles. It was only natural for me to take note of the fact that the speaker, Dr. Cummings mingled with attendees prior to her presentation in order to size up her audience and tailor her content based on her impressions.
Her presentation was thorough and provided a great deal of much needed information. It was done in a manner that put the many caregivers in attendance, at ease. She created an openness and interactive style facilitating a more relaxed atmosphere, allowing for the free flow of questions. Tam pointed out that not all dementia is Alzheimer’s disease and the percent of Alzheimer’s that make up dementia is reduced, by virtue of expanded medical knowledge and research enabling better identification of other forms of dementia; notably, Lewy Body Dementia, Vascular Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia and Dementia associated with Parkinson’s Disease.
Melissa and I enjoyed our private lunch with Tam, discovering the different hats she wears as a gerontologist in her community in Texas. She and I agreed that the demographic shift underway in this country with longer life expediencies and a large baby boomer population will result in a Tsunami of patients with dementia.
I encourage my readers to learn what they can about Dementia and take steps to reduce risk factors if possible. I will write more on risk factor reduction in future blogs, so stay tuned.
I addition, I urge readers to take steps to develop a retirement plan that includes provisions to meet long-term health needs.
Join in the conversation, I would like to hear from you.
To a healthy and long life,
David Bernstein, MD
