Articles and Briefs of Importance to Eldercare Professionals and Caregivers - #14

The LONG LIFE Family Study: An International Research Project Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health What are the secrets of a long and healthy life? This study examines the families of those that have achieved this distinction.

Drug Plan Study Says Seniors Get Bad Advice: Providers Give Wrong Information When undercover investigators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office called insurance companies that sell Medicare drug plans, they received correct and complete answers about coverage only 34 percent of the time.

Dolls 'Help Alzheimer's Patients': Advice for Clinicians Dolls and teddy bears can help people with Alzheimer's disease interact and communicate with others, researchers at senior care communities have found. Dolls appear to alleviate agitation or distress, help overcome communication difficulties, and reduce withdrawal.

Guardianship Monitoring: A National Survey of Court Practices (AARP Research Report) Guardianship is a powerful legal tool that can bring good or ill for an increasing number of vulnerable adults with cognitive impairments. Incapacitated elders are at risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation by guardians with the authority to make surrogate personal and financial decisions. To better understand how courts are monitoring the performance of guardians, AARP’s Public Policy Institute (PPI) took the first detailed look at guardianship monitoring in over fifteen years.

Many with Alzheimer's Do Just Fine: But Caregivers May Not Think So
Doctors are finding Alzheimer’s is not automatically associated with the type of distress many seem to expect. Despite the importance people place on memory, the disease may cause an unpleasant disruption at first, which fades in recognition as memories do. Those with Alzheimer’s spend their remaining life possibly no worse or better off emotionally than before. Out of the 181 patients who could confidently answer the survey, more than two-thirds viewed their lives as "good" or "very good." according to results published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Such optimistic self-assessments are not always shared by families and caregivers.

Source: EldercareNetwork

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