MEMORY CARE
How Wellness Culture Impacts Memory Care
By Sara Wildberger G
etting an idea from complex labo- ratory research to an intervention that can improve lives and com-
munities is called translation. Marie A. Ber- nard, M.D., deputy director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, has extensive experi- ence and knowledge of the full breadth of the translation process. From her frontline view of the NIA’s more than $1 billion in aging research, Dr. Bernard shares some of the latest developments and insights that tie into the role that a culture of health and wellness serves in senior living communities, particularly in memory care.
The best time for health and wellness is here and now “The old adages, the things that our moth- ers told us to do, these seem to be the things that are proven to be true to help us as we age. We’re at that stage in life when the set- ting in which one puts oneself can be just as important if not more important than genetics. Lots of studies have shown that exercise, not smoking, maintaining good body weight, and, possibly, being socially engaged can make a difference in quality of life and health—and that applies for people who are cognitively healthy and for those who are not.”
It’s about the whole person “There’s a growing body of literature sug- gesting that there are more hospitalizations and emergency room trips associated with co-morbid conditions (such as diabetes and high blood pressure) in people with dementia than in people who do not have dementia. Reciprocally, good management of those other conditions is something that can help people with dementia.”
36 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE / ISSUE 1 2017
Yes, you can get people moving “We’ve had studies in past 20 years that demonstrated that absolutely you can help motivate older adults to exercise—and in fact, exercise can be more effective in preventing the development of diabetes in people 60 years of age and older than in younger individuals.”
Smart solutions “I’m very hopeful that there will be new technology that will assist with care. There is a lot of interest in robotics, smartphones, and smart house technology—technology to help you to track activity of an individ- ual at risk for falls, for instance, that could potentially be very helpful in a memory care setting as well.”
Getting ahead of the disease “There’s very interesting and compelling research that allows us to track the develop- ment of the pathology associated with Alz- heimer’s disease, and what we’re finding is that people start developing this pathology years or even decades before they actually have symptoms. Past studies have been done trying to treat people after they have clinical symptoms and that’s probably too late. We need to get them before they have clinical symptoms, before too many of the brain cells die off, and this new research allows us to do that.”
Change Agent Profile
Dr. Marie Bernard Deputy Director NIA at NIH
“There’s a lot of interest in getting us to
the point that we can make a potential diag- nosis by blood test, or by eye exam. There are a lot of different ideas that are out there, so I think this is going to be an exciting time, to see which of those pan out. We’ll possibly have drugs or interventions, behavioral inter- ventions, exercise, or diet that perhaps will make a difference in the progression of the illness for people in memory care settings.”
Changing culture in senior living “Demographics show that we’re going to have a progressively diversified older pop- ulation, racially and ethnically, and even gender-wise, and we are not necessarily prepared for that. Some of the interventions that we’ve been looking at don’t include those populations in sufficient numbers for us to know whether or not the interventions are going to be effective across the board. This is an exciting time for research, and we need more volunteers to help us.”
SPOTLIGHT ON A FREE RESOURCE
Looking for ways to motivate older adults to become physically active—maybe for the first time, after a recovery, or as part of a weekly routine? The National Institute on Aging at NIH designed Go4Life (
go4life.nia.nih.gov), a website full of resources for individuals and communities, including an evidence-based exercise guide in both English and Spanish, an exercise video, an interactive website, and a national outreach campaign.
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