April 2012
www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com
New Options in Dementia Care Offer Hope With Fewer Drugs
While the
world of psychiatry debates the origins of dementia and Congress probes the abuse of mind-numbing drugs in controlling seniors in nursing homes, some innovative care early success with experimental programs that help elders cope with dementia while reducing -- or eliminating -- the use of psychotropic medications.
The 115-year-old
Eliza Jennings Senior Care Network, a using a Japanese teaching program to slow the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and related diseases. In Minnesota, Ecumen a chain of 15 skilled nursing homes, is calming agitated dementia patients through a natural, one-on-one calming blend of conversation and environmental changes.
Both experiments help dementia
patients live more comfortably with little or no use of powerful antipsychotic drugs, a growing problem in senior care facilities nationwide.
A government study found that
14 percent of the 2.1 million seniors in nursing homes had at least one Medicare claim for such drugs, and 88 percent of the drugs were given for “off-label” uses considered dangerous by the Food and Drug Administration.
Chemical Restraint Misused to Quiet Elders
A panel of experts warned a U.S.
Senate Special Committee on Aging in November that care facilities, hospitals and assisted living centers have turned increasingly to use of dangerous antipsychotic drugs as chemical restraints for agitated dementia patients.
The need for better methods is
growing rapidly. Today there are over 40 million Americans over 65, but there are 77 million boomers just starting to move into their senior years. The percentage of elders requiring professional care also may rise as psychiatrists expand edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The manual, the Bible of diagnosing
mental problems, is expected to include new disorders such as bereavement and “mild neurocognitive disorder,” which could apply to millions of seniors. Without alternative treatments, the problems now visible in treating mentally ill seniors could multiply, resulting in greater problems and much higher health care costs.
During her testimony to the Senate
committee in November, Cheryl Phillips a geriatric specialist and senior vice president for advocacy at LeadingAge, warned that people diagnosed with dementia frequently arrive at a nursing home already taking multiple psychoactive medications to manage behavior. This use typically begins in a hospital, assisted living community or as part of a home dementia treatment plan. The nursing facilities merely continue the treatment, she said.
In a recent interview, Phillips
The Hampton Roads Messenger
Volunteers to Cleanup and Green Up Hampton Roads
SPECIAL TO HRM
From Poquoson
Centers, is shown signing the agreement with Deborah residents.
praised the Ecumen and the Eliza Jennings chain’s experiments for their cutting-edge work on dementia care without medication. To be sure, the work is early and much remains to be seen. But they are promising steps on the long the current problems.
Three “Rs” for Elders The Eliza Jennings facilities
brought the Kumon Learning program from Japan to two of its Ohio homes. It uses math, reading and writing studies for 30 minutes a day on patients with mild to mid-stage cognitive problems that many consider a precursor to full-blown dementia.
intended that the participant learns the material,” said Deborah Lewis Hiller, president and CEO of Eliza Jennings. “It is an intervention to stimulate the prefrontal cortex of the brain.”
Although the results of the
six-month experiment will not be published by the Japanese researchers until June, Hiller says, “the outcomes have been very positive, better than anticipated.”
Kumon began in 1954 when a
high school math teacher, Toru Kumon, wanted to help his son teach himself. He wrote numerous calculations on loose-leaf paper for his son. Today 200,000 students in Japan are enrolled in the program.
The Kumon method was adapted in
recent years to help elders with dementia and, since 2010, nearly 5,000 seniors have been using the method at 319 centers in Japan. They use it with the intent to stave off potential dementia.
The Awakenings Experiment The Ecumen program, called
Awakenings, began by looking back to a more traditional approach of working one-on-one with patients. It is a three-year program funded by a $3.8 million grant from Minnesota’s Department of Human Services.
When the program began more
than a year ago, the long-term care industry had slipped into using drugs to medicate people with dementia when they acted out or had profound agitation, said Andrea Marboe, the spokeswoman for Ecumen’s Awakenings Program in Shoreview, Minn.
The new program trains staff to
redirect an agitated resident away from that can be disturbing. The staffers talk with them or walk outside or in a quiet area. They place a bulletin board in each room showing a resident’s favorite
DEMENTIA CARE PAGE 13
to Portsmouth and Newport News to Norfolk, more than 40 regional cleanup projects are planned throughout Hampton Roads next month as part of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup National
Action
Days, April 27-28. Project partners,
askHRgreen.org and Keep Virginia Beautiful, are encouraging volunteers to pick a project and register now to be a part of this landmark cleanup and green up campaign.
“We need at least 1,500
volunteers to make this a successful event, and I’m pleased to report that we’re more than half way there,” said Regional Project Chairman John Deuel. “This speaks so well to the region’s commitment to volunteerism, and I know Hampton roads residents are ready to step up and make a difference here at home.”
According to Deuel, more than
1,000 volunteers have registered to date, including a huge showing of crew members of the Norfolk-based on to the Great American Cleanup’s “Corporate and Military Challenge.” The command of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier will send between 850 and 1,000 sailors to lend a hand with cleanup projects throughout the region that weekend while the ship is docked for maintenance.
“The U.S.S. Harry S. Truman’s
participation in the Great American Cleanup speaks volumes about the military’s commitment to being a good community partner,” said Deuel. “We are delighted to have them on board, and we hope other commands will do the same. In addition, we invite corporations and businesses to urge their employees to work on a cleanup project as a team, which can be a great morale booster.”
Earlier this year, Keep America
Beautiful selected Hampton Roads as one of 10 national sites to host National Action Days events the last weekend in April, with an eye toward transforming regional parks, public lands, playgrounds and trails into cleaner, greener landscapes. Working with local municipalities in most of the 16 cities and counties,
askHRgreen.org leaders helped to coordinate a wide variety of half-day projects from which volunteers could choose.
Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach are organizing city-wide
cleanups of neighborhoods, parks and recreation areas. Chesapeake has at Bainbridge Blvd. and Freeman Ave., and Hampton volunteers will convene for an “Interchange Change,” picking up litter along the intersection at LaSalle Ave. and Mercury Blvd.
A few miles away in Poquoson,
Evie Insley is organizing three projects on behalf of the city: a citywide “Adopt-a-Spot” roadways cleanup, a refurbishing of Pocket Park and a cleanup along the city’s “blueway trail” between Messick Point and Amory Wharf that will require the aide of local
“We’ll be cleaning up both the
shoreline and the waterway,” said Insley, who is the administrative support technician for the city of Poquoson. “We thought if we had shallow draw boats on the water, it would work. We’re also asking volunteers to wear their ‘bubba boots’ for cleaning up debris along the shoreline.”
In addition to the cleanup and
organized collection events are planned for the Great American Cleanup. In Isle of Wight County, volunteers will host a reusable bag exchange and plastic bag recycling event, April 27. In Newport News, the city will collect electronics and household hazardous waste materials such as oil and latex paints, stains, car batteries, insecticides, household bulbs, April 27.
A complete listing of Great
American Cleanup projects is available at
askhrgreen.org/the-great-ameri- can-cleanup-projects-and-sites, and volunteers can pick a project and register online. The deadline to register is April 6.
Giving back to one’s community
by cleaning up the environment is something that everyone should do, said Deuel.
“It’s a great way for people to see
their neighbors, meet new friends and understand how we’re all connected to the region,” Deuel said. “And, it’s a lot of fun.”
IRS PROBLEMS? TAX PROBLEMS?
KATHRYN BOONE LANE The Tax Professional
Federally Authorized Tax Practitioner
3
Keep Virginia Beautiful Volunteers
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16