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The Penn Memory Center is now enrolling for its fall session of its psycho-educational Caregiver Class for those caring for a family member or other loved one with dementia. And, for the first time, a separate class will be offered exclusively for those caring for a spouse.

Caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia may experience feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, hopelessness, or frustration. This course is designed help caregivers develop skills to better help their loved one – and themselves – cope with the many changes of living with dementia.

Warning: This event is at capacity. Any future RSVPs will be placed on a waiting list.

Please join us for a special Memory Café night at the Penn Museum.

At this free event, friends of the Penn Memory Center are invited to socialize and handle touchable artifacts from the museum and join a gallery tour. The evening will conclude with the sounds of Afro-Cuban and West African drumming by Leana Song.

Time: 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Date: Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Place: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

RSVP: Please RSVP by August 8, 2016 to Alison Lynn at alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu or 215-360-0257.

Parking: Parking is limited, but attendees may try to park in Lot 7 adjoining the museum for $21. Public transportation is encouraged if possible.

Mary Ellen McNish spent more than a decade “yelling constantly” at her husband, whose cognitive impairment drove her to “my wit’s end.”

“He went from being a Ph.D. economist to having difficulty figuring things out. It’s been a loss of inches,” she told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But then she discovered the Penn Memory Center’s six-week psycho-educational class for people caring for loved ones with dementia.

Arlen Hlusko performs at the 2015 Penn Memory Center Research Partner Thank You Breakfast.

Cellist Arlen Hlusko, a graduate of Curtis Institute and recent apprentice with the New York Philharmonic, will be performing at Penn Memory Center’s (PMC) monthly Memory Café August 5.

This program, held from 10:30 a.m. to noon each month at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City, is exclusively for people with memory problems, including Alzheimer’s disease, and their partners/families. Please RSVP by contacting Alison Lynn at alison.lynn@uphs.upenn.edu.

Adults ages 65 and up are invited to join in free fitness classes at Penn Medicine.

Stay Active & Independent for Life (SAIL) is a a strength, balance, and fitness class that will meet twice a week for eight weeks beginning August 30.

Classes are taught by an occupational therapist and designed to adapt for all levels of physical ability.

Organizers promise that you’ll be stronger, have better balance, and feel better.

Time: 6 to 7 p.m.
Dates: Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning August 30
Place: 1800 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Details: Quick cognitive phone screen; registration paperwork and a physician release are required for enrollment.
RSVP: Joseph Muniak, MS, OTR/L | 215-893-6579 | joseph.muniak@uphs.upenn.edu

Clinicians studying Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are advancing to the next stage of research, but they need the help of volunteer participants.

New technology has allowed sites like the Penn Memory Center (PMC) to take a more detailed look at the brains of living research participants, and studies are adapting to collect more of that data.

“Imaging in this day and age is one of the most useful things for how to follow what’s going on in a living person’s brain,” said Dr. David Wolk, PMC co-director.

Bill Lyon, right, is joined by Dr. Jason Karlawish at the Penn Memory Center. Credit: Clem Murray/Philly.com

In the world of sports journalism, Bill Lyon is a legend.

In more than 40 years in the Philadelphia region, working for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he has covered the biggest moments in sports: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Olympics. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times.

Yet through decades of watching elite athletes square off, Lyon has never covered a battle quite like his own.

Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet is set to honor late Penn Memory Center research participant Toni Hamilton with a performance inspired by her writing.

Beginning Wednesday, July 6, BalletX will hold its two-week Summer Series 2016 at The Wilma Theater, featuring choreographers Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Matthew Neenan, with virtual art shop Klip Collective.

The longer a patient with a neurodegenerative disease goes undiagnosed and untreated, the less likely it is that treatment will be effective, a Penn Memory Center neurologist told Penn Medicine.

“Early detection and diagnosis result in the ability to get patients started with early interventions,” said Dr. Sanjeev Vaishnavi, an assistant professor of Neurology. “Medications can result in an initial stabilization in memory and functional impairment, especially when used early in the course of the disease.”

For that to take place, someone — be it the patient or a loved one — needs to begin a difficult conversation.

“This is certainly not an easy conversation to start,” Vaishnavi said. “People are scared of the words dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“It’s rare that a person hasn’t seen the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s on someone else. They don’t want to think about themselves in that position. People are afraid they will be labeled as ‘no longer smart.’ People are concerned that they might lose their job, or become a burden on their loved ones, or that someone may become unrecognizable to them.”

Read the complete article on PennMedicine.org.