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By Joyce Lee

The ability to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease dementia from simple blood tests in cognitively healthy individuals might soon become a reality, a recent New York Times column suggests.

But Alzheimer’s is a disease currently with no successful prevention method, and so this kind of test raises a critical question: how will people who test positive for biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease understand and grapple with such sensitive health information, and what can physicians, policymakers, and the wider community do to help them make sense of this information?

Are you a full-time caregiver over the age of 50? If so, you might be eligible to apply for a Caregiver Grant from the non-profit organization Road Scholar. Road Scholar sponsors “enriching learning adventures” for older adults to provide much-needed respite from the emotional and physical demands of being a caregiver.

You are eligible if you are a primary unpaid caregiver providing daily care and support for an ill or disabled family member. The family member might be receiving home care, hospice, visiting nurse, or LPN services or be in an adult day care, memory care, or nursing home. You might also have lost a family member in a situation described above in the past two years.

The Caregiver Grant is for an award up to $1,300 applied to the cost of a Road Scholar educational travel program. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2017.

For more information or to apply, please visit the Road Scholar Caregiver Grants website.

Join the Penn Memory Center in welcoming University of Pennsylvania a cappella group The Pennchants at the Memory Café on December 8.

Friday, December 8 | 10:30 a.m. to noon
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

The Pennchants is Penn’s premier all-male a cappella group focused on revolutionizing the a cappella scene by experimenting with the conventional dress codes, pop arrangements, and stage formations of the genre. Formed in 1989 by a group of men from the Penn Glee Club tired of barbershop and musical theatre performances, The Pennchants burst onto the Penn musical scene with energy and original style and won the inter-Penn a cappella group competition in its first year. Since then, the Pennchants have toured several countries and drawn praise for inventive arrangements and innovative choreography. A professional group that balances touring, recording, and performing at numerous venues throughout Philadelphia, The Pennchants have earned widespread recognition as a group that brings fresh energy to the genre of a cappella.

Memory Café is a monthly series of social events designed to support PMC patients and caregivers. Held every month in Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City, Memory Café offers opportunities for social and cultural engagement and often features musical performances and art workshops. For more information about Memory Café or for the monthly schedule, please visit the Memory Café web page.

Click here to make a donation in support of the Penn Memory Center.

Dear reader,

My name is Alan Cohen and I am writing to you both as the caregiver for my courageous wife, a patient at the Penn Memory Center, and as a doctor who has been personally engaged in clinical care and research for more than forty years. I am asking you to join me in honoring and supporting the Center’s incredible team of physicians, scientists, nurses, social workers and all of their associates at the Penn Memory Center who deliver extraordinary patient care while performing cutting edge research to discover new and more effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders. My wife and I have seen first-hand how all of the critical parts of the Penn Memory Center — research, patient care, and programming and counseling for caregivers — enhance each other while supporting families like ours.

Editor’s Note: Alison Lynn, MSW, LSW is a licensed social worker and the Assistant Director of Care Programs at the Penn Memory Center. Alison provides counseling, education, and psychotherapy to patients and families affected by a diagnosis of dementia. She also was a speaker at the 2017 FTD Caregiver Conference and shared invaluable information for helping children and teenagers negotiate the changes when a parent or other close loved one is diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease such as Frontotemporal Degeneration. She wrote the following essay for the Penn FTD Center following that conference.

By Alison Lynn

I recently met with a young mother* who was struggling with a tough question: her husband had just been diagnosed with FTD, and she needed to tell her middle and high school-aged kids. She worried not only about how to tell them, but also how to support them through the course of her husband’s illness when she, too, would be struggling. She needed a road map of what was to come and how she could possibly handle it. Here is some of what I shared with her.

Penn Memory Center Coordinator for Multicultural Recruitment and Retention Karletta Poland (left), PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish (center left), and PMC ambassador Karen Wheeler (center right) pose with Alpha Phi Alpha brothers after “Alzheimer’s in our Community.”

By Joyce Lee

A recent event co-hosted by the Penn Memory Center and the African-American fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha (APA) called on local communities to address the growing problem of Alzheimer’s disease in the African-American population. The event, titled “Alzheimer’s In Our Community: A Call to Action,” focused on education, training, and research initiatives needed to combat this disease within this demographic group.

APA member Frederick Okoye III pointed out the high mortality rate and prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease as his motivation for hosting the event.

“The most striking statistic for me, however, was the disparity in diagnosis, treatment, and the general knowledge of cognitive impairment in communities of color, particularly African-American communities,” Okoye said.

Dance for Health, a Penn Memory Center program that seeks to promote physical health and bridge generational gaps through dance, will return in 2018. Learn more about what’s in store at an information session on December 2.

Dance for Health Information Session
December 2 | 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Ralston Center
3615 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
RSVP: hailu.tigist@gmail.com

Dance for Health hosts weekly dance sessions and social activities for older adults in the West Philadelphia community and beyond. These dance sessions are led by dynamic and engaging instructors and joined by area high school students. The goal is to get older adults engaged in physical activity and connected with their local community. As maintaining a healthy brain includes exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and keeping mentally and socially engaged, Dance for Health hopes to do its part in promoting brain health through dance in the community.

Join the Ralston Center November 20 a “Healthy Brain Aging” workshop with PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD.

“Healthy Brain Aging” will discuss how your lifestyle affects your brain as you age, what activities are effective in protecting your brain health, and how and when to do them. Registration and lunch to take place before the program, which starts at noon.

Healthy Brain Aging
November 20 | 11 to 1:30 a.m.
Ralston Center
3615 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Registration is required. Call 215-386-2984 or email aanwar@ralstoncenter.org to register.

by Joyce Lee

Those who haven’t experienced it might not realize, but caring for someone with dementia can be a grieving process, Alison Lynn, assistant director of care programs at Penn Memory Center, said last month at the Ralston Center’s workshop for family and caregivers of older adults with dementia.

As a social worker at the Penn Memory Center, Lynn explained she often helps caregivers with three major tasks:

1. building feelings of self-worth and self-care
2. communicating personal needs to family and friends
3. managing the behavioral needs of their loved ones.

With the last point, Lynn said she often asks caregivers to be “behavioral detectives” and observed that behavior can be the patient’s way of communicating.

Top row, from left: Cynthia Clyburn, Shauniqua Key, and Christine Pappas. Bottom row, from left: Arielle Schreier, Catherine Wilsnack, and Lauren Zelouf.

By Joyce Lee

Penn Memory Center recently welcomed a new team of social work interns to help develop and maintain psychosocial programs that support PMC patients and caregivers.

Cynthia Clyburn, Shauniqua Key, Christine Pappas, Arielle Schreier, Catherine Wilsnack, and Lauren Zelouf are students in the Master of Social Work program at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice.

They will be working closely with Felicia Greenfield, director of clinical research operations and care programs, and Alison Lynn, assistant director of care programs. Greenfield called the annual corps of social work students “integral to the PMC’s training mission.”