“Dementia Awareness”

This third event was supported by a grant from Community Health Network Area (CHNA) 15.

The Friends of Indian Senior Citizens Organization (FISCO) of Burlington MA held its third  seminar   â€œDementia Awareness” on December 14 at the Burlington Council of Aging with a focus on supporting our community in becoming safer for, more respectful of, and inclusive of individuals with dementia and the people close to them.

Two speakers from  Jewish Family and Children’s services (JF&CS) presented the seminar and emphasized that people living with dementia are a  valuable  part of community and are human being first. Both speakers brought their varied experience to unravel the mysteries of this disease. Mary Curlew is a licensed social worker, a community Education and Training Specialist for Services for Older adults. Beth Soltzberg directs the Alzheimer’s/Related Disorders Family Support program. Beth’s work includes facilitating the JF&CS Memory Café and Balancing Act group in Waltham. Beth also co-coordinates the Dementia Friendly Massachusetts Initiative

Both speakers are champions of Dementia Friends, a global movement to educate people about dementia and make a difference in the lives of the people living with it. They both run workshops  on Dementia Friends with a vast network in Massachusetts. They mentioned that there are Dementia Friends in India as well, one may get additional information at the website Dementiafriends.in

Beth mentioned that as more people are diagnosed,  they are publicly talking about Dementia to  reduce the stigma. She quoted Charles Ogletree, a Harvard professor, and Civil Rights leader, living with dementia “It is very important to talk about it, I talk about Alzheimer everywhere I go.” Their  life does not end, and they continue to live  and continue to be contributing member of the community.

They discussed normal aging changes with our mind and body. For example, one  occasionally forgets  names and  places, and there is normal vision and hearing loss. However, Dementia changes are different from common aging symptoms. They range from  memory loss to  lack of ability to think,  mood fluctuations, performance of day-to-day activities, lack of judgement, misplacing things and  withdrawal from social activities, including family.

Mary talked about “Everyday Tasks” that we do in an auto pilot mode  but can be monumental for a person with Dementia. She illustrated an example of a step by step of simple task like brushing your teeth and how we need to build bridges between steps to fill the gaps, like holding the toothbrush to removing the toothpaste cap to squeezing it etc., to complete the task.

Dementia damages outer brain cells first which control your facts and complex thinking,  but  emotions and feelings remain  longer. Dementia is a group of symptoms and not cause. Alzheimer is the most common type of Dementia. Beth and Mary differentiated that if one forgets the name, it is ok but if there is a memory loss daily, then it is a bigger problem. If a person loved to cook and had family members over but now it is causing distress , it is an indication of the brain change and time to consult a health professional and recommendation for a neurologist. They provided a list of resources including Alzheimer Association helpline (www.alz.org or call 1-800-272-3900)  to speak with a counsellor. (The detailed resource list will be published  to thefisco.org in near future)

Family members need to understand how to cope with Dementia. They emphasized that we need to understand, support and respect people living with Dementia and support their family as well. Beth discussed the communication tips with Dementia person. She urged audience to be positive with them and treat them with dignity and importantly listen, not interrupt. No one should be ashamed of the dementia. We cannot deny the disease but can only try to slow the process.

During the questions and answers period they mentioned that mind games like Sudoku or Cross Word puzzles, help people get better at game but they are not protective against Dementia. A person can build protective neural connections by doing hard immersive  work, especially  learning new language, and playing new musical instrument. Different dance steps also use different senses while moving and listening to music along with volunteering or taking a class where the rhythm of the activities is different.

They both discussed protective factors for physical and mental health which are adaptably, capability, social connections, and sense of purpose. During Covid, impact of social  isolation while living with Dementia was significant.  Dementia is not primarily due to genes. For Alzheimer, a small number of families carry genes, but it is rare. If more than one person has Alzheimer in a family, then statically risk is higher. Aging is the biggest risk factors.

Journal writing has terrific way for incorporating adaptability, capability, connectivity and socialization and if person has someone to tell the stories,  one gets all the  above resiliency factors. One major  International POINTER Study research shows that Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it can be any cuisine. Fresh fruits, dark vegetables, olive oil or other healthy oils and limited unrefined sugar is good  for the brain.

 Beth and Mary urged that friends should stay close and connected with Dementia person and the family. They can join Mass. Memory café where people come and have fun together. Visit www.jfcsboston.org/MemoryCafeDirectory to find a cafe near you. They urged audience to become Dementia friends and dementia champions and Listen, Respect and Treat Dementia patients as a full human-being

Minuteman Senior Services and Zaika Restaurant of Woburn provided hot vegetarian meal following the presentation.

Friends of Indian Senior Citizens is actively engaged in improving the mental health, nutrition and good physical health of Asian Indian seniors. We invite you to visit thefisco.org for information about our programs. The next seminar, “Three secrets of Living Well Through Aging and Illness” will be held on Tuesday January 25th  from 10:30 – 11:30 am at the Burlington Senior Center on Zoom. It will be presented by Dr. Ashwini Bapat from  EpioneMD. A free hot Indian vegetarian lunch will be served.

Please join the seniors vegetarian lunch program held on Wednesday and the chat program on Sunday and make new friends and re-connect with old ones. Write to Raman Gandhi, President of FISCO for more information and to join FISCO: ram2005gandhi@yahoo.com or thefisco@gmail.com

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