The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care

More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s or similar illnesses, and that number is growing as the population ages - without any immediate prospect of a cure, advocacy groups have begun promoting ways to offer people with dementia a comfortable decline instead of imposing on them a medical model of care, which seeks to defer death through escalating interventions. An Arizona nursing home offers new ways to care for people with dementia.

Many medical students are intimidated by the challenge of having to gather accurate histories and establish connections with patients with dementia. A non-profit, Arts and Minds, is helping students get more comfortable by connecting them with patients outside of the clinic through museum visits.

What can you do to enjoy time with Alzheimer’s patients? A suburb near San Diego has recently opened a new town square with architecture designed to look like it is from the 1950s. The space offers aging baby boomers with dementia or Alzheimer’s a place to enjoy and interact with nostalgia.

There is a racial disparity in science, the black population is extremely underrepresented and due to historically terrible treatment of black individuals by science they are very reluctant to engage in research. Therefore, researchers are now starting to directly target black and other underrepresented groups to try to spur involvement.

The National Gallery of Art’s “Just Us” program brings seniors with memory loss symptoms to the museum for ‘meditation’ on paintings. Using the paintings as prompts, visitors are encouraged to react to and interpret what is before them mentally engaging them and providing an opportunity for socialization.

A new app, called Eyemove, has a 70 percent accuracy rate of diagnosing dementia simply by recording a person's eye movements with a smartphone camera. If a person screens in with signs of dementia, they are referred to a doctor for clinical diagnosis. This solution could help people suffering from dementia who do not have regular access to the extensive resources traditionally necessary to diagnose diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

A good pampering can feel fantastic. Beauty and wellness experiences such as pedicures and massages are particularly special for women and men in care homes, lifting moods and helping individuals express themselves. “It’s rewarding, humbling, a privilege,” Back to Beauty founder Sarah Rigden says. “They come in a little bit stressed and a little bit anxious, and they go out with a smile on their face.”

By 2025, Britain expects to have one million citizens suffering from dementia. The National Health Service is testing a new form of therapy where scenes reminiscent of a person with dementia's past are played on a virtual reality headset. So far, research shows that bringing up images, objects, and discussions from a person's past can help them recover more memories, connect better with family members, and achieve better mental health.

The Netherlands is trying an alternative strategy to hospitalization for dementia patients. Instead of home care and hospitalization, patients live in group care facilities, which use stress-reduction techniques and calming cues to reduce the negative symptoms of dementia. There’s no cure for dementia, but their methods are effective in reducing the medication and restraints necessary for patients.

In California, about 18,400 inmates are over the age of 55. In order to properly treat them the state is building a dementia unit. Other states like New York might follow suit, in order to properly care for their aging inmate population.