Denise Grady’s article, The Vanishing Mind: When Illness Makes a Spouse a Stranger, published as part of a series in the New York Times, discusses a rare form of dementia that affects between approximately 50, 000 and 60,000 people in the United States.

Frontotemporal dementia, also called Pick’s disease, is  ”…a little-known, poorly understood and frequently misdiagnosed group of brain diseases that eat away at personality and language. Although it was first recognized more than 100 years ago, there is still no cure or treatment, and patients survive an average of only eight years after the diagnosis.”

See the article  here  (or click the link with the video above) to read about the incredible strides being made toward a disease that is often called more devastating than Alzheimer’s – because it strikes younger people, progresses faster, and begins with bizarre personality changes as opposed to initially affecting memory – and to hear the story of Michael and Ruth French, a couple struggling with Michael’s dementia diagnosis.

For more specific information about Frontotemporal dementia, consult the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website here.

What do think about the idea of making a tradidtiontional nursing home a place looks nothing like a nursing home, a place where residents feel little reason to leave? Toni Davis, director of the Green Hill Retirement Community in West Orange, N.J., along with two dozen other nursing home directors, are trying to build this idea. They have been remodeling their traditional nursing homes with new floor plan, added fixures, and a whole new care plan system.  They want to bring the comfort, the home-like feeling to senior residents; and they are very  successful.

We came across this interested article and would like to share.

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Inspired by an Orlando Sentinel guest editorial, join us for a discussion of how the psycholgical notion of “anti-aging” denies our past and invalidates our future, thus preventing us from embracing who we are now.

- A light lunch will be served -

                          Presenters:

   Amy Cameron O’Rourke

         President, The Cameron Group

   Robert Bernstein

         Orlando Sentinel, Guest editorial writer

Cost: Institute members $10

         Nonmembers $15

Thursday, December 1

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Library Community Room

Winter Park Public Library

460 E. New England Ave.

Registration Requested: register online or all 407-623-3279

Memberships Available: institute members do not pay most program fees and receive other valuable benefits as well. call 407-623-3279 for more information

Jane Gross, a former New York Times reporter and the author of “A Bitter Sweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents- and Ourselves” posted her opinion about Medicare in the New York Times this past weekend. She tells her own story of her mother’s journey and discover, along the way, that Medicare doesn’t pay for what most people need or want.

Click Here to Read Full Article