Beginning with planning meetings to determine the best course for the study, residents’ abilities and interests and the possibilities for the study design at each community and continuing with site visits, conference calls about specific research plans and trainings on implementing outcome measures, it has been an involved and enlightening time.

Interestingly, research studies take time to develop, to implement, to understand and study and to measure in outcomes. The Compass Program Directors and residents have learned this together in the past few months. The Directors and residents look forward to sharing more information about the implementation and outcomes of the study. Some questions that are being considered include: Can music enhance memory for specific facts, such as daily schedules? Can memory enhance and elevate mood and focus, while decreasing challenging feelings and behaviors for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease? We’ll keep you posted.

These innovative programs have been very successful for the residents that reside in Compass Memory Support and SLR continues to be a part of current research initiatives towards the increase of knowledge and information about the disease. Furthering knowledge about the disease today will lead to new research-based programming in the future, ensuring the best quality of life for current and future residents.

Most recently, SLR has embarked on a research project with its academic affiliate the Boston University School of Medicine’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center to investigate the effect of a specialized music intervention to enhance memory and overall quality of life for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

SLR is committed to being a part of the progress made in understanding and treating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, residents who live in the Compass Memory Support programs continue to be a part of and benefit from the latest in Alzheimer’s research, everyday.

Infrom the conference, it has been noted that in a research trial involving more than 300 depressed individuals with dementia that standard antidepressants were not more effective at relieving depression symptoms when compared with a placebo. In addition, in some instances the medications studied (Remeron and Zoloft), made the study participants feel worse due to adverse reactions.

In the study, all of the participants had improvements in the clinical depression rating scales, however there was no noted difference in the groups, those in the placebo group did just as well as those with the active drugs.

The researchers conducting the study recommend that individuals see a specialist to treat their depressive symptoms, using both a non-drug and possibly drug therapy. Senior Living Residences’ Compass Memory Support provides a supportive, vibrant living community for individuals with dementia. Compass’ research-based approach to intervention and programming provides a program to combat the symptoms of dementia as well as depression that can be associated with it.

This month at Compass on the Bay, local musician, Doug Robinson is creating an individualized listening program for each of the residents, based on their own favorite music, responses to songs and recollections.

The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function reports that early research on the therapeutic effects of music indicates that it may help improve scores on cognitive function tests.  In addition, music improves the mood, alertness and quality of life of someone living with Alzheimer’s disease and can be used as a powerful tool.

Residents at Compass on the Bay are already benefitting from the music groups and will soon have their own play-list as well. Doug Robinson and Jennifer Hoadley, Compass Memory Support Program Director have noted increased alertness, focus and recollection in each of the groups. The music that is chosen for the groups is based on the residents’ origins, interests, life history and response to particular songs, what is directly speaking to them.

At Senior Living Residences, innovative programs are pursued that have shown to be effective in research and that allow for  individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease to maximize their ability to connect to themselves and their own experiences.  Check back to read more about this innovative program and individuals’ experiences in the groups.

The guidelines issued by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association, break the disease into three distinct stages. The stages are preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s dementia. Preclinical, a newly recognized stage describes a time when a person appears healthy, but has amyloid deposits occurring in the brain, a noted hallmark of the disease. Researchers believe this occurs ten years before the onset of symptoms and can be identified by sensitive scans. The guidelines also officially recognize mild cognitive impairment as part of the disease. These stages will not be used in clinical diagnosis at this time, but in the research setting.

Finally, the guidelines expand the criteria for dementia, including impairment in visuals/special function, judgment and reasoning. The former guidelines only recognized declines in memory functions.

The new guidelines will assist researchers in discovering interventions at the earliest stage of this disease, the preclinical one. It is believed the preventative measures and treatments would be most effective at that point in the disease course as compared to later in the illness.

Those individuals with weaker pumping hearts or the lowest cardiac index had brains that appeared two years older than those of similar participants with the highest cardiac-index. Cardiac index is a measure of how much blood is pumped form the heart relative to body size. Another finding in the study was that individuals with a  cardiac index in the normal range, had decreased brain size as compared to those in the highest index, suggesting that even small reductions in blood flow may compromise cognitive health.

One of the lead authors of the paper reporting the study is Angela Jefferson, an Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University and the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Senior Living Residences’ academic affiliate. She has a research interest in vascular risk factors that may accelerate abnormal cognitive aging including Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists say the data from the study is observational and does not prove a causal relationship, but still supports making healthy living choices, such as eating well, exercising regularly and monitoring cardiovascular risks.

The ride starts long before the morning our team lines up on the starting line. Our fundraising goal is high but not impossible. We need to raise $3300 dollars for the cure. Will you help us? Donate by stopping in at the Methuen Village reception desk, or by visiting the event webpage at http://www.alzmass.org/memoryride/.  Thank you for your support!

See the complete article here at WebMD.

Senior Living Residences works closely with Dr. Nancy Emerson Lombardo, a Boston University adjunct research professor and founder of Healthcare Insights, in order to bring the Memory Preservation Nutrition(R) Program to our residents in SLR’s assisted living communities. Dr. Lombardo’s program is based on a Mediterranean diet, and incorporates the latest research findings. If you have not had the opportunity to hear Dr. Lombardo speak, SLR is currently planning our 2011 education calendar. Professionals may attend seminars and earn nursing and social work CEUs.  Of course, the program is beneficial to all of us, and anyone interested in learning more about the Memory Preservation Nutrition(R) Program or Senior Living Residences is welcome to attend.  Click here for our educational calendar. Subscribe to the calendar and you will receive updates each time a new date is added!

NAPA approved by congress

Congress recently sent a bill to the President’s desk that would significantly impact the future wellbeing of our nation’s aging population. The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), a bipartisan bill, aims to combat Alzheimer’s with the same determination with which we have worked to prevent and treat AIDS and cancer. If enacted as expected, the main goals of the bill will be to:

• Launch a campaign within the federal government to overcome Alzheimer’s disease.
• Establish an inter-agency Advisory Council to develop with the Secretary of Health and Human Services a coordinated National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan.
• Comprehensively address the federal government’s efforts on Alzheimer’s research, care, institutional services, and home- and community-based programs.
• Accelerate the development of treatments that would prevent, halt, or reverse the course of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Decrease health disparities by ensuring ethnic and racial populations at higher risk for Alzheimer’s receive much-needed care and services.

(courtesy of Emaxhealth.com)

As compared with the AIDS and cancer federal agendas, combating Alzheimer’s is unique in that there are NO survivors. It is up to advocacy organizations, such as the Alzheimer’s Association, to organize caregivers, eldercare professionals, and those with Alzheimer’s that can tell their story, to provide valuable information and feedback to this new federal office. Follow this blog and Alzheimer’s-related websites such as the Alzheimer’s Association’s website www.alz.org, to learn of opportunities to contribute to this cause.