Do you live near Omaha?

Reporter: wowt
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

A study involving an experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease is being conducted here in Omaha.

Known as the "Bapi" study, the University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of 200 sites across the United States and Canada testing a drug aimed at slowing the progression of the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of memory and cognitive function. It destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect everyday life.

Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, and it is fatal. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, affecting approximately 18 million people worldwide. Alzheimer’s-related medical complications are.....read the whole article

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Alzheimer’s and dementia facts

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie

We’ve talked before about countable vs. non-countable assets, but one thing that must be considered as well is that Medicaid also looks at transfers of property, money etc that have occurred. In general, if your loved one with Alzheimer’s needs to apply for Medicaid, they will look back at all transfers that took place over the last 5 years (depends on your state) to see if they were proper or improper.

If Medcaid believes an improper.... click here for the whole story

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A Ground Hogs Day Activity for those with dementia

Caregivers and healthcare professionals
This is an activity related to shadows that could be a gift or a nice wall hanging
Suite101.com

Cut Out A Shadow Silhouette
Save your Shadow
© Elece Hollis

Make a silhouette of your friend's head and profile by tracing the outline of his shadow onto white paper.

Want to catch a shadow in black and white? Here's how to do it!

Tape a large piece of white paper up on the wall.

Place a bright light, like a gooseneck lamp or a pedestal lamp where it will shine on the paper. Seat your friend or relation in a chair between the lamp and the paper so that his....read the whole article

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Dementia More Likely in Some Isolated and Inactive Seniors, Study Finds

The New York Times
by RON CARYN RABIN
Attention neurotic woody Allen types: you really ought to get out more.
Now a new report from Sweden suggests that neurotics can shape their destiny to some extent, because lifestyle also.......read the whole story

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Fish Oil May Prevent Alzheimer's Weight Loss

AlzheimersCare.com

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fish oil supplements could help Alzheimer's patients maintain a healthy weight, a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society shows.

People begin losing weight in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and get thinner as the disease progresses, Dr. Gerd Faxen Irving of Karolinksa University Hospital Huddinge in Stockholm and her colleagues note in their report. Several factors may contribute, they add, including inflammation, dulling of taste and smell, and the roaming and fidgeting characteristic of the disease, which may cause people to burn more calories.

Given that people with Alzheimer's disease have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids that drop further as the disease progresses, Irving and her team investigated.......read the whole article

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Alzheimer’s Facts

http://payingforalzheimerscare.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/alzheimers-facts/

We’ve talked before about countable vs. non-countable assets, but one thing that must be considered as well is that Medicaid also looks at transfers of property, money etc that have occurred. In general, if your loved one with Alzheimer’s needs to apply for Medicaid, they will look back at all transfers that took place over the last 5 years (depends on your state) to see if they were proper or improper.

If Medcaid believes an improper transfer took place, they can apply a penalty period for a transfer. So if for example your mom needs to go into a nursing home and apply for Medicaid, but 2 years ago she gave you $40,000, this may be viewed as an improper transfer subject to a penalty (it was within 5 years of the date she is in the nursing home and applied).

The penalty means.......click here for the whole story

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How Veteran’s Benefits Can Help Offset The High Cost of Alzheimer’s Disease

payingforalzheimerscare

Brian Willie
Here is the video I promised about Alzheimer’s and VA Benefits. Watch to find out how a VA benefit can really help pay for keeping your loved one with Alzheimer’s at home longer with at-home health care or at an assisted living facility.
Click here to see the whole thing

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Dealing with dementia

Standard.net
By BECKY WRIGHT
Standard-Examiner staff
bwright@standard.net

Telling the truth may not be as important as giving comfort to loved one

When Judy Butler's mother-in-law asked if her husband was dead, Butler did what she felt she had to do.

"I would lie to her, straight out. I'd look her in the face and lie," said the Layton woman.

Butler's father-in-law has been dead for about 23 years, but for the past three years, her mother-in-law hasn't been able to remember.

It's one of the many ways dementia victims can lose touch with reality. Forgetting names and faces, seeing people and things that aren't there, and mentally traveling back in time are common.

When a loved one loses touch with reality, it leaves family members wondering how best to handle the situation.

"I really struggled with what thing works best. ... Was it more comforting for me to play along, or struggle to bring her to reality?" said Nikki Lovell of Ogden, whose mother sometimes suffered from hallucinations in her final years.

Lovell tried sticking with reality, and that was fine with her mom. "She'd say, 'I know you can't see these fairies, but they're really beautiful,' " Lovell recalled.

It was different with her mother-in-law.

"My mother-in-law saw people on the mountains, and would drag me to the window to look," she said. "If I said, 'I can't see any,' she'd get so angry with me -- like I was trying to sabotage her and make her feel crazy."

After a few experiences, Lovell began questioning whether she needed to tell her mother-in-law the truth.

"The people who played along with her made her life easier," she said.......read the whole article

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Vitamin B-12: Can it improve memory in Alzheimer's?

Mayo Clinic
Ask the Alzheimer's Expert
Mayo Clinic neuropsychologist Glenn Smith, Ph.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.

Vitamin B-12: Can it improve memory in Alzheimerfrom readers.

Answer
Vitamin B-12 helps maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. A vitamin B-12 deficiency — most common in older adults and vegetarians — can cause various signs and symptoms, including memory loss. In such cases, vitamin B-12 supplements can help improve memory.

In the absence of a vitamin B-12 deficiency, there's........read the whole answer

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Living with dementia means having a game plan to manage the disease

The Daily Gleaner

By CHERYL CLOCK
The Canadian Press
CATHARINES, Ont. - Taped to her living room wall are words that give her strength. Words that give her hope.
A woman from the Alzheimer Society of Niagara Region gave her these words.

And Margaret Ball, a 58-year-old grandmother, reads them every day.

"Worry looks around, Sorry looks back, Faith looks up."

"I believe God only gives you what you can handle," she said from her home in Beamsville, Ont. "God gave it to me. He must know I can handle it."

For the most part, Ball is positive. Strong. She's in the earliest stages of dementia and has resolved to live her life to the best of her ability.

She laughs (even at herself and some challenges she encounters with her short-term memory). She contributes. Appreciates. And still feels a sense of purpose.

She wants people to know that life doesn't end with a diagnosis of dementia. That it goes on. And there can still be joy.

At first, it wasn't obvious. Sometimes she repeated herself. Other times she just seemed a little absent-minded. But isn't everyone?

Then something happened that no one could reason away.

Kevin Sharpen, her 35-year-old son who lives in Hamilton, tells the story. Although it happened just a few years ago, his mother remembers nothing.

Ball was driving a bus, on her way back to the daycare where she worked in Burlington, Ont. It was the morning. She had just dropped off the last of the children at school. Sharpen was at home when she called, crying and panicked.

"Kevin," she sobbed, "I don't know where I am."

"What do you mean?" said Sharpen.

His mother was in the bus. Lost, somewhere along the route she had travelled for years. Sharpen called her boss. Somehow they found her.

Doctors checked her out but didn't have any answers. She was fine for a while. Then, while at the daycare, Ball passed out. Twice.

Again she was checked over. Again, no obvious problem.

Then, in the period of a month, she was in two accidents. In one, she was driving in downtown Hamilton, got disoriented, drove into oncoming traffic and hit a sign post.

Still, doctors had no answers.

The final straw came the day she passed out while doing laundry in her apartment building.

This time, doctors found something. A condition in which her heart stops beating momentarily, for a fraction of a second. And dementia. Likely.......read the whole article

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Caregiver's provide activities to those with dementia

Alzheimers Activities Expert

National Activity Professionals Week will be celebrated January 18-23, this year. However caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias provide activities every day of the week, 365 days a year

Read about National Activity Professionals Week

Are activities important for those with dementia?

For Those Whose Lives Are Touched by Memory Loss

simplifyingmotherhood
Trish Berg
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I received a neat little workbook in the mail, and wanted to share the information with you all.

If you have a family member with any memory loss, this is for you.

My dad, Peter, was one of the most intelligent people I ever knew. He was an engineer, an inventor. He had worked on the NASA missions in the 60's back when they were flying the Apollo aircraft out in space. He helped design huge plants out west that turned shale into oil. He traveled around the country to work on various engineering project over my lifetime, and I never thought his life would have come down to what it did.

My dad suffered a stroke just before Mike and I were married in 1991. My parents had been divorced since I was 8 year sold, so I only visited my dad during my growing up years (a subject for a whole different column.)

After his stroke, he lost his engineering job in AL where he was living at the time. He had lost all his engineering abilities. He looked normal on the outside, but his brain was not remembering things.

So he moved to Rhode Island and got a new job there. He got that engineering job based on his resume (which was quite impressive) and his salesmanship (again, quite impressive). Once he began working, it became clear to his new boss that he was not able to perform the work. So he was fired.

Then he tried to get a cashier's job at a department store. He was hired and then quickly fired. This intelligent man, this inventor of things, could not remember how to run a simple cash register.

He fell into a deep depression and did not leave his apartment for over a month.

That's when his landlady called me here in Ohio to let me know what was going on.

We had no idea what my dad had been going through at that point.

As soon as we found out, with the financial help of my mom and step-father, and my in-laws, we drove to RI, picked up my dad, loaded a U-Haul, and moved him in with Mike and me.

That was in 1992. We cared for my dad until his death in 1997. He was only 64 years old when he died. So young. So sad.

During those 5 years of caring for my dad, I learned a lot about dealing with a loved one with memory loss. Peter had dementia, and though his long term memory was good, his short term, memory was terrible.

He could talk to you about.......read the post

********From Susan Berg**********************

Some slight memory loss is normal as we age. However this memory loss should not impact our daily lives.

Mainly what we see in normal aging is that it takes people longer to retrieve information stored in their brain.

In order to maintain our brain and keep it working properly, we should do some basic things

Eat right
Stay mentally and physically active
and NOT partake in any bad habits such as smoking or heavy alcohol consumption.

There has been a lot of research on supplements, new drugs and other devices to prevent, stop and repair memory loss.

However what works right NOW is taking care of yourself.

Make sure to visit her blogs

My blog

http://dementia.today.com/

shares information on what you can do to prevent dementia. Sometimes I site new research studies on various aspects of memory decline, improvement, and even memory activities for those with dementia. Right now I am talking about New Year's resolutions that are sure to keep your brain in tip top shape

On my blog
http://alzact.today.com/

I discuss activities to keep those with dementia mentally and physically active. Caregivers, Activities Directors, other health care professionals, and anyone interested in dementia care can use these activities.

On my blog
http://dementiatips.blogspot.com/

I discuss ways to to maximize positive relationships with those who have Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, I teamed up with Brian Willie of the Alzheimer's Legal Resource Center to share helpful tips on paying for dementia care as well.

read the whole post

finally if you would like to make money blogging, not a get rich quisk scheme or anything like that go to dementia.today.com and click on the red box on the right which says "Get Paid to Blog"

Thanks for your attention

Alzheimer’s Disease and Veteran’s Benefits

payingforalzheimerscare

Brian Willie

Most people facing Alzheimer’s have never heard about a Veteran’s Benefit called a Special Monthly or Improved Pension. You may have heard the name “Aid and Attendance” tossed around, and it has sort of become this “mysterious” thing that people have heard exist but no one has any idea how to obtain the benefit.

Aid and Attendance is really a misnomer. The real program is a Special Monthly Pension (also called Improved Pension). Part of that program includes a higher level benefit for Veteran’s needing “Regular Aid and Attendance.” Now, it’s important not to confuse this VA Pension with a VA Disability Pension where the Veteran has been rated disabled due to an injury that occured during a wartime period.

Instead, this is a program that provides for long-term care costs for a Veteran who was not injured during war but is now disabled. This is a really great program for Alzheimer’s. Many families living with Alzheimer’s want to keep their loved one at home for as long as possible. Or, they want to move their mom or dad into a good assisted living facility. Home health care and assisted living can cost tremendous amounts of money. But, if you qualify for this VA benefit, it can provide up to
.......read the whole story

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Food Assistance Becomes a SNAP!

Alzheimer's and Dementia Weekly
You as a caregiver may be interested in this program
Washington, DC - As the worsening economy puts increasing pressure on older Americans with limited income and resources, the need for assistance to buy food is escalating.

To assist people who need help paying for food, the National Council on Aging has enhanced BenefitsCheckUp with a new Web-based service that provides easy access to information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program), in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

"Unfortunately, with states facing deficits and cutting human services programs...read the whole article

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Alzheimer’s, Medicaid and Resources

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie

When a family member has Alzheimer’s, it’s often neccesary to seek the assistance of Medicaid. Medicaid will want to know all resources (assets) available to the person applying. However, this does not mean that they will count all resources. Generally, there are countable and non-countable resources. When I say non-countable, this means that although they must be disclosed, Medicaid will not take them into consideration when determining whether your loved one qualifies. The following is a list of assets that in most states are considered non-countable:

A home, if the applicant has an intent to return home (generally up to $500,000 in equity)
One automobile
Personal effects
Life insurance with a total face value of $1,500 or less
Property used in a trade or business
It’s important to keep in mind ......READ THE WHOLE POST

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Alzheimer’s, Medicaid and the Problem of “Too Much Income”

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie
There are times when someone with Alzheimer’s must go into a nursing home and must apply for Medicaid to help pay for some or all of the costs. But, what happens when the Medicaid agency tells you your loved one with Alzheimer’s has “too much income” to qualify? Depending on your state, certain states are known as “income cap” states. This means that if your family member has over a certain amount of income, they exceed that “cap” and may not qualify for Medicaid. But wait a second–not so fast.

In many income cap states there is.....read the whole post

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Alzheimer’s and Home Health Care

payingforalzheimerscare

Brian Willie
For many families, home health care is the way to go to take care of their loved one with Alzheimer’s. That is, at least for awhile. There are some very good home health care providers, but they can be very expensive. The average cost is $16-24/hour. For the family that needs moderate levels of help, this may not be bad, but as care needs increase, and more and more hours must be spent on home health care, the Alzheimer’s family will face tremendous expenses. I recently met with someone who runs a home health service and she told me that it’s not uncommon for round the clock care to cost as much as $3,600 a week!

We will talk more about how a little known Veteran’s Benefit can.....read the whole post

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Alzheimer’s Disease and Annuities

payingforalzheimerscare
Brian Willie
This is more of a warning than anything. For families facing Alzheimer’s-you must always be on the look out for unscrupulous financial planners and annuity sales people. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certainly reputable, good people out there who sell these products. The problem is, people with Alzheimer’s have a very high chance of needing skilled nursing care in the future.

This also means that they may very well need.... read the whole post

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Boston Legal and Alzheimer’s Disease

Paying for Alzheimer's Care
by Brian Willie
As a fan of the show, I thought I’d share this. Be sure to watch and pass this on.
————————————————
Denny Crane has Alzheimer’s Disease

Please tune in to the Boston Legal series finale Monday night on ABC, 9:00 Eastern/Pacific, 8:00 Central. The double-episode will feature Denny Crane’s struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease in the workplace, and his plans for dealing with the disease. Please forward this to friends and family.

See the new page and....read the whole post

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Medicare and Alzheimer’s Disease

payingforalzheimerscare

by Brian Willie

Did you know that Medicare does not cover most of what a person with Alzheimer’s needs? Many people confuse Medicare and Medicaid. I like to look at it this way: Medicare only cares if you are “lucky” enough to have the right disease! I know –it sounds absurd. But it’s true. If your family member had a stroke and needed rehabilitation in a skilled nursing facility following a hospital stay-Medicare probably cares about her and will pay-at least for awhile. If on the other hand your loved one has Alzheimer’s and needs that same skilled nursing stay-Medicare no longer cares. In that case other methods of paying must be explored.

For great tips, tricks and techniques on helping to pay for Alzheimer’s care visit: http://www.PayingForAlzheimersCare.com and get my FREE Ebook today

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Alzheimer's,dementia and Medicade

payingforalzheimerscare

Alzheimer’s and Medicaid: How Alzheimer’s Families Deal With the Challenges of New Laws

I’m still dumbfounded that Congress determined it was necessary to
change Medicaid Planning techniques that were available to the
the family facing Alzheimer’s. But, not all is lost. There are still many ways your loved
one can qualify.

What is Medicaid you ask? Well, it’s complicated.

This is a federal and state funded and state administered medical
benefit program which can pay for the cost of the nursing home if
certain asset and income tests are met.

There are basically four ways to pay for nursing home care:

1. Private Pay. This is the method many people with Alzheimer’s are required to use
at first. Quite simply, it means paying for the cost of a nursing
home out of your own pocket. Unfortunately, with nursing home bills
averaging between $4,000 and $4,500 per month in our area, few
people can afford a long term stay in a nursing home.

2. Long Term Care Insurance. If you are fortunate enough to have
this type of coverage, it may go a long way toward paying the cost
of the nursing home. Unfortunately, long term care insurance has
only started to become popular in the last few years and most
people facing a nursing home stay do not have this coverage

The first two methods of private pay (i.e. using your own funds)
and long term care insurance are self-explanatory, our discussion
will concentrate on Medicare and Medicaid.

3. Medicare - This is the national health insurance program
primarily for people 65 years of age and older, certain younger
disabled people, and people with kidney failure. Medicare provides
short term assistance with nursing home costs, but only if you meet
the strict qualification rules.

4. Medicaid - This is a federal and state funded and state
administered medical benefit program which can pay for the cost of
the nursing home if certain asset and income tests are met. Since
the first two methods of private pay (i.e. using your own funds)
and long term care insurance are self-explanatory, our discussion
will concentrate on Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicaid has traditionally been.......read the whole post

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Paying for Alzheimer's and dementia care

payingforalzheimerscare.wordpress.com
by Brian Willie
Brian explains how families can pay for the extraordinarily high cost of Alzheimer’s care
For great tips, tricks and techniques on helping pay for Alzheimer’s care visit: PayingForAlzheimersCare and get the FREE Ebook by Brian today.
Do not forget to watch the video by Brian

For more information on dementia, click here

For great activities for those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias,
click here