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Splaine Consulting January 2023 Newsletter
Social Prescribing: An Alternative Form of Treatment
Social Prescribing: An Alternative Form of Treatment in Memory and Cognitive Disorders:Social prescribing has been found to help lessen isolation and loneliness and improve overall health and wellbeing for both carers and those living with dementia.
From local libraries, museums/galleries, dementia resource centers, botanical gardens, yoga, and equestrian centers, to houses of worship, social support is often available. Because of Covid-19, many of these creative therapies are now offered virtually. Learn more HERE.
Here are some art therapy programs for people living with dementia:
- Bringing Art to Life (BATL)
- Arts & Minds
- See Me at the Smithsonian
- Linked Seniors
Long Term Care Policy and Economics Conference: Submit Your Abstract
Researchers are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for the 2023 Long Term Care Policy and Economics conference. The event will occur in-person, November 7-8, 2023 in Washington, DC. Researchers from both the US and around the world are welcome to submit their work for this refereed Conference. The Conference is organized by Gateway to Global Aging Data in concert with the Center to Accelerate Population Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, one of the 27 institutes of the National Institutes of Health. Invited topics include long term care (LTC) policy, benefit administration, benefit design, and costs to residents, caregivers, payers, and the public. Select papers will be included in a Special Issue of Health Economics.
Interested presenters should submit a long abstract describing the research question, the data used in the analysis, the research design and main or preliminary results by March 31, 2023.
Authors of accepted papers will be notified by April 28, 2023. Submissions can be made by emailing ltc.conference@g2aging.org.
What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer.
After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer’s disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve.
Some researchers thought that the answer might lie in the tau tangles – abnormal bundles of proteins inside neurons that are also hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and even more closely linked to the cognitive symptoms than amyloid plaques are. Others thought that excessive or misplaced immune activity might be inflaming and damaging delicate neural tissue. Still others began suspecting dysfunctions in cholesterol metabolism or in the mitochondria that power neurons.
The emerging new models of the disease are more complex than the amyloid explanation, and because they are still taking shape, it’s not clear yet how some of them may eventually translate into therapies. But because they focus on fundamental mechanisms affecting the health of cells, what’s being learned about them might someday pay off in new treatments for a wide variety of medical problems, possibly including some key effects of aging.
Learn more HERE.
Gerontologists Go To Israel
Gerontologists Go To Israel is a fifteen-day trip to Israel intended to introduce North American gerontologists and allied professionals to their Israeli colleagues and projects in Israel. The trip will be May 22 to June 6, 2023. During the trip, participants will meet the central figures in the Aging Network in Israel and visit cutting-edge projects on including independent, supportive, and long-term-care housing. Participants will enjoy opportunities to learn from and with our Israeli colleagues, potentially develop collaborations and partnerships, and learn about internship and fellowship opportunities. Participants will learn about the unique elements of the Israeli approach to aging, support for older adults, caregivers, and caregiving, primarily in the community, which positively impact Israeli longevity, morbidity, life satisfaction, and much more.
For more information, please go to www.sharedworldtours.com. Or write to mmarcus@sharedworldtours.com or call (847) 571-1802.
Learn more HERE.
HHS Emphasizes Addressing Disparities and Risk Reduction for ADRD
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra recently announced the annual release of the Department’s National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease: 2022 Update. Through the National Plan, HHS and its federal partners work to improve the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research, support people living with dementia and their caregivers, and encourage action to reduce risk factors.
The National Plan has six ambitious goals to:
- Prevent and Effectively Treat Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias by 2025
- Enhance Care Quality and Efficiency
- Expand Supports for People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias and
- Their Families
- Enhance Public Awareness and Engagement
- Improve Data to Track Progress
- Accelerate Action to Promote Healthy Aging and Reduce Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s
- Disease and Related Dementias
Living Alone and Connected!
Living Alone and Connected! is a private members only Facebook group for persons living alone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Living Alone and Connected! was created to lessen the effects of the existing social isolation many people with dementia already faced, isolation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Living Alone and Connected! hosts virtual events from museum tours to educational programs to happy hours and game
nights. The group is a platform for members to receive emotional support, share questions or ideas, and find resources regarding their condition and lifestyle. If you have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia and live in a single person household or if you care for someone who does, join or share the Living Alone and Connected! group.
Those working alongside people living alone with dementia can benefit from the Living Alone and Connected Facebook public page. The page provides resources to those family, friends, and caregivers who support people living alone with. The page content is on the experiences and obstacles those living alone with dementia face and tools to support them along the way.
If you care for someone who lives alone with dementia please follow the Living Alone and Connected page today! Living Alone and Connected! is hosted and moderated by Cognitive Solutions, LLC. Living Alone and Connected! is supported in part by a cooperative agreement #90ADPI0067-01-00 from the Administration on Aging (AoA), Alzheimer’s Disease Program Initiative (ADPI) and cooperative agreement NVADPI0082 from the Neighbor Network of Northern Nevada.
