Art Lessons

Betty (standing) helps another Betty properly hold her drawing pencil.

The Glenner Alzheimer's Family Center in Encinitas recently welcomed Betty Sturdevan into its community. Betty is an accomplished artist whose paintings and sketches hang in homes and offices throughout the world. She grew up in Southern California, attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles and traveled extensively with her husband in the Marine Corps, drawing inspiration for art projects at every place they lived and visited. Eventually, she came home to Encinitas.

Betty prefers to work in watercolors, oils and pastels. Sketches of animals at the San Diego Zoo and paintings of flowers are among her favorite subjects. She says it takes "practice, practice, practice" to learn to draw and paint well.

"I love art because it loosens you up and makes you see things," she said. "You have to look at what you're drawing. You have to think about what you're doing."

Betty now helps our participants use art to express their passions and to help them pay close attention to the colorful world around them. Here are some snapshots from Thursday's art lesson we thought we'd share.

Betty concentrates on drawing an amaryllis plant.
Betty shares sketches done while visiting the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

The center's program manager, Elaine, helps Charles, a.k.a. "The Colonel," guess what animal Betty's drawn.

Anna and Betty enjoy their art lesson.


"Agave" by Betty Sturdevan, from her collection at the San Dieguito Art Guild Gallery in Leucadia, CA.

A State Plan We Can Live With

Caregivers across California are providing valuable input for a 10-year state plan for Alzheimer’s disease as it continues to be a leading cause of death, a trend likely to continue as baby boomers age.

Last year a 22-member task force was created by appointment, and among those selected was Amy Abrams, a San Diego geriatric care manager who also serves on the Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers board of directors. (When we say she’s an active board member, we mean it: Last weekend she ran a marathon to raise funds for our organization.)

Amy is a member of the Health and Medical Subcommittee, which is dedicated to assessing the state’s current health and medical services related to Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairments.

“It’s been a really interesting process to hear how other professionals are, or would like, to effectively coordinate dementia care,” Amy said in a recent interview. Often, when a family receives a diagnosis of dementia, their primary care doctors do not know what resources are available and how to access them. Her group’s goal is to have every Californian with such a diagnosis be assigned a dementia care coordinator to help connect them with the appropriate services.

Other areas of focus include dealing with a growing shortage of geriatric specialists and working with physicians on continuing education to make sure dementia-specific units are included. “We need primary care physicians to be able to confidently diagnose and follow their patients' dementia,” she said.

We also need family caregivers to give input so the final state plan accurately reflects real-world experiences of those living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, health and aging leaders throughout California.

An online survey includes questions about the caregiver’s personal experience. It is easy to access via a computer terminal (PC or Apple) and is available in five languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. Simply enter the survey address:
http://www.chhs.ca.gov/initiatives/Pages/Alzheimer’sStatePlanDevelopmentTaskForce.aspx or click here.

The survey take less than 5 minutes to complete. To learn more about the survey or the State Plan process, please contact Alex Graves at 916-447-2731 or by email alexgraves@caalz.org.

Congratulations, Amy & Joan

While Glenner board members Amy Abrams and Joan (Kallin) Tincher head back to San Diego, we wanted to congratulate them on completing the Fargo Marathon and Half Marathon yesterday in great times and, we hope, good shape.

Amy ran the marathon in 4:30:01, according to the race's Web site results. That's just three minutes off her predicted time, so she trained very well.

Joan completed the half marathon in 1:54, which is an excellent finish time.

Both she and Joan, whose online results we weren't able to locate yet, ran to raise money for our Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers. They more than met their fundraising goal of $786 and thank everyone for their support. We thank you two too!

Amy and Joan's Big Adventure

This weekend Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers Board of Directors’ Amy Abrams and Joan (Kallin) Tincher will be running the Fargo Marathon and Half Marathon. The pair will raise both awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and funds for our San Diego County centers.

The two veteran runners set a goal of $786, based on $20 per mile for a combined 39.3 miles. Amy will be running her 12th marathon, while Joan is entered in the half marathon along the same course. As of today, they’ve raised more than $1,200!

“Within a week of setting up the Firstgiving fundraising page, the donations started coming in and they’ve just kept coming. We didn’t realize how generous people would be,” said Amy, who is Vice President of Client Services for Elder Care Guides.

In addition to her financial goal, Amy hopes to finish Sunday’s marathon in 4:27 minutes – a figure as unique as her original fundraising target. This also is her 11th state in a quest to run a marathon in all 50 states. Joan is a longtime runner who continues to post impressive times – including, most recently, first place in her age group - in area races.

Regardless of how well they do in what at the moment is looking like very warm, windy conditions, both Amy and Joan, a geriatric nurse practitioner and case manager for Health Care Group, will certainly get some attention.

Both will be wearing “Run Naked” reflective apparel. And the back of their shirts will read: “Marathons are hard. Alzheimer’s is harder.”

Good luck to both of you on Sunday!

Good News, Mary!

Our Hillcrest Center this week celebrated the 91st birthday of one of its dearest volunteers, Mary Moore. Mary comes to the center to read the news of the day to our participants. Like our news readers at our facilities in Chula Vista and Encinitas, Mary has a special way of delivering highlights from around the world. She picks uplifting articles and recites them in a way both staff and participants truly appreciate. She's been part of our Glenner family since 1986.

Happy Birthday, Mary!!

Don't Let California Eliminate Adult Day Health Care!

There's a way you can help us keep the state of California from eliminating adult health care centers such as those that serve the elderly and their caregivers. And you don't even have to leave home or the office to do it.

Please consider taking the California Budget Challenge. This survey is being used in the budget town halls throughout the state. Right now more than 50% of the people who have logged in have chosen elimination of ADHC. We need to change this with a concerted effort to log in and vote. We need to all log in and get that number down. The elimination of ADHC is an option under the health care section. Please complete the survey and protect ADHC. Many families throughout the state would be severely impacted if it is eliminated, including working-age caregivers who would lose their jobs due to lack of day care.

Once you complete the survey, please forward the following link to the Budget Challenge to your friends and family asking them to do the same.

http://www.nextten.org/next10/programs/budget_challenge.html

On behalf of tends of thousands of families just here in San Diego who are impacted by Alzheimer's disease, THANK YOU!

What To Do With Wandering

This week a New York Times blog noted that police in Virginia are being called more often to locate and return dementia patients who wander away from home. According to the post:

Wanderers often follow fence or power lines, and tend to be drawn toward water, Virginia state rescue officials said, bound on a mission that only they — and sometimes perhaps not even they — can imagine. (A search trick: try to figure what door they exited from, then concentrate first in that direction. But don’t bother calling out the person’s name, which he or she has often forgotten.)

During last week's town hall forum for San Diego County caregivers, medical experts addressed wandering, which can prevent participation in a day care or assisted living facility. Wandering may occur when a person moves to a new home or, quite frankly, is bored.

What you can do:

--Have them carry a wallet card with simple instructions on who to call or where to go in case they get lost. (This is assuming he or she can read.)
--Enroll them in a SAFE return program, so authorities are more easily alerted.
--Have them wear a bracelet similar to a Medi-alert bracelet with contact information.
--Enroll them in an adult day care center. This is best done when they are in the early stages of dementia. Keep the first few visits brief and, as the primary caregiver, stay with them during that time.
--Make sure they get enough exercise during the day.
--Give them small tasks to keep them from becoming bored.
--Anti-mania medication may be useful.
--Substitute shoes for slippers.
--Install red octagonal signs on exit doors.
--Install home alarms or baby monitors.

Finally, the Times piece also had this advice:

Searching for them often also means learning a patient’s life story as well, including what sort of work they did, where they went to school and whether they fought in war. Because Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia, works backward, destroying the most recent memories first, wanderers are often traveling in time as well as space.

When Sleep Does Not Come Easy

A common issue with dementia patients and their caregivers is sleep, specifically the lack of it. Insomnia is common in those with Alzheimer's Disease, and that places a burden on their caregivers.

During the recent "Survival Tools for Caregivers" Town Hall Forum in Kearny Mesa, Dr. Daniel Sewell of UCSD discussed some causes of sleep disturbances and possible solutions.

The most common causes of insomnia include:

--Caffeine
--Heartburn
--Diuretics
--Lack of exercise
--Exposure to bright light in the evening
--Too much sleep during the day
--"Sleep fragmentation" - or dozing on and off day and night

"This is where enrollment in an adult day care center can be so helpful," Dr. Sewell said. That's because staff can be sure to keep a loved one engaged and exercising so that he or she is naturally fatigued at bedtime. Keep them away from caffeinated drinks and monitor medications and meals for signs of indigestion. Finally, do not turn on bright flourescent lights in the house in the evening; instead, keep lighting low to stimulate sleepiness.

What's Behind Those Behaviors?

During last week's Town Hall Forum for caregivers of loved ones with dementia, Dr. Daniel Sewell of the University of California, San Diego noted that one in three patients who come to his geriatrics center can trace new behavioral symptoms to a previously overlooked medical problem.

"When a person living with dementia develops a new behavior, we need to first ask: Is there something medically that's changed? And could this be responsible for the change in behavior?" he said.

Sometimes it's a medication that accounts for the change. Every medication, even aspirin, can trigger side effects. "As a person moves through the illness, their brain is changing and in six to 12 months they may not need some or any medications because the behavioral symptom may go away on its own," Dr. Sewell said.

When this is the case, medications are reduced gradually over a period of months and up to a year.