ElderWeb

The following information was provided in a press release by the Alzheimer's Foundation of America:

MedicAlert ® and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) have started marketing a new identification bracelet with a color-coded symbol specifically designed to symbolize Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in order to help individuals in emergency situations.

The new identification bracelet has a teal MedicAlert ® emblem to denote that an individual has Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, marking the first time that MedicAlert ® is utilizing a colored emblem to symbolize a specific disease. In an emergency, the emblem alerts medical professionals or first responders to call MedicAlert ®'s 24-hour hotline to access electronic health records containing vital medical and contact information about each wearer.

Caregivers can easily obtain and update personal information in the system, including medication dosages, allergies, implanted devices, physician and family contacts, insurance information, organ donation specifications, and advance directives.

Membership in MedicAlert ®, which includes a bracelet with the teal emblem, a printed electronic health record summary, 24-hour emergency response service, patient identification, emergency contact and family notification service, and 24-hour customer service, costs $35 the first year and a $20 subscription each year thereafter. AFA and its member organizations will provide a special code that offers a $5 discount off the first year of membership.

PRESS RELEASE
New course will help people with dementia

The first nationally accredited training course aimed at improving the lives of people with dementia is being launched at the University of Sunderland.

The distance learning course for professionals will help further raise the level of care offered to thousands of people across the country living with dementia.

Sunderland has teamed up with the Alzheimer'™s society, BUPA care homes and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to provide the new course, '˜an introduction to Dementia care'™.

Through open learning, the use of videos, group discussion and working with people with dementia, the course will encourage staff to view dementia care as a career choice and help in the understanding of the illness.

Vicki Lawson-Brown, senior lecturer in health studies at the university said: 'ÂœThis course recognises the attitude, expertise and knowledge needed to deliver successful dementia care.

'œIt'™s an exciting new development to provide a better quality of care for people who have dementia, treating them with the respect and dignity they deserve. We welcome the opportunity to recognise the work of care staff in this field.'

The new course is part of a range of Joseph Rowntree programmes awarded to the University of Sunderland by the trust two years ago.

Studies have shown that up to 75 per cent of people living in nursing and residential care homes have Alzheimer'™s or another form of dementia.

The Alzheimer'™s society hopes that all care providers will eventually use the course to help improve training for those working with people with dementia.

Daren Felgate, the Alzheimer'™s society'™s training and development manager, said: 'œWe hope this course will become the key introductory course for care workers helping people with dementia.

'œWorking with people with dementia is often seen as difficult and challenging, but with the right support many care staff will see it is the most rewarding work they have ever done.'

The course has already been piloted through four BUPA care homes and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in York. It will be launched at the Royal Society in London on April 22, where speakers from BUPA and the Alzheimer'™s Society will be highlighting the importance of effective dementia care training.

More info is at http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/

The Alzheimers Association recently released a research report showing that the cost to the US government's Medicare and Medicaid programs for Alzheimers was $50 billion -- $32 billion for Medicare and $18 billion for Medicaid. They predict that the cost to the Medicare program alone for Alzheimers would reach $50 billion by 2010, along with a $33 billion cost to the Medicaid program and another $50 billion cost to beneficiaries, for a total cost in the US of about $133 billion.

The report points out several factors behind these high costs. For instance, patients with dementia are more likely to have preventable medical crises caused by their impaired judgment and inability to manage their own care. Alzheimers is also a significant cause of the burgeoning cost of the Medicaid program. Half of all nursing home residents have dementia, often with lengthy stays that are paid for by Medicaid.

The report was done by the Lewin Group, and was presented in a Senate hearing this week. The association urged Congress to double spending on Alzheimers research to $1 billion a year to prevent a situation which has the potential to bankrupt the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They warned Congress that these costs will sky-rocket even further in the future as baby-boomers age and start becoming eligible for Medicare in 2010.

UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance to local councils on the use of drugs for the treatment of Alzheimers Disease. Three drugs, Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl, have been approved for treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimers. NICE estimates that there are about 400,000 people in the UK with Alzheimers, and that about 250,000 of them have mild to moderate levels of the disease.

NICE reports that Donepezil is marketed by Pfizer/Eisai as Aricept, rivastigmine by Novartis as Exelon and galantamine by Shire Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Cilag as Reminyl. The annual cost in the UK of donepezil is 891 (5 mg)/1,248 (10 mg), taken in a single daily dose, for rivastigmine is £821 (all doses), taken twice per day, and for galantamine is £876 (16 mg)/1049 (24 mg) (allowing for an initial starting dose of 8 mg daily), taken as 8 mg or 12 mg twice per day.

NICE points out that it is difficult to estimate the total aggregate cost of using these medications, but that the cost may be offset by later entry to a nursing home. For example, a delay of 12 weeks at £370 per week would yield a cost saving of about £4,500.

The NICE website includes full guidance for local councils and leaflets for patients.

Researchers developing a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease have shown that it seems to stop mice with the condition from losing their memory, which boosts hopes that such vaccines could delay or prevent similar symptoms in humans. The vaccine also reduces the build-up of protein deposits in mouse brains - the other major indicator of Alzheimer's disease. The pharmaceutical company Elan, based in Dublin, Ireland, is poised to begin large-scale human clinical trials of a potential treatment based on the vaccine. But what works in mice does not always work in people and the vaccine will still have to prove its worth in a battery of further tests.

Peter St George-Hyslop of the University of Toronto in Canada and his colleagues and a second team led by Dave Morgan of the University of South Florida at Tampa showed that the vaccine reduces learning and memory loss as the mice age. Each group gave Alzheimer's mice learning and memory tests, in which the animals had to swim to a submerged platform. In one trial the platform was moved each day, testing short-term memory. The second trial investigated 'spatial-reference' memory by leaving the platform in one place and testing the mice once a month. Mice given the test vaccine developed fewer and smaller protein deposits in their brains and performed markedly better than unvaccinated animals in both types of memory test.

Whether the protein deposits actually cause dementia in people is unclear. Some researchers believe that preventing the deposits from forming should relieve the distressing mental symptoms, although others disagree. This research supports the hypothesis that the two are related, but other factors could still be involved.

A collection of research reports on this subject are included in the current issue of Nature Magazine.

Researchers report in the November issue of Archives of Neurology that aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs may help prevent Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Previous research has suggested that anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen may cut Alzheimer's risk, but researchers were not sure how high a dose was necessary to produce the desired effects. Dr. G. Anthony Broe led a group of researchers at the University of Sydney who studied more than 600 men and women age 75 and older and found that even low doses of the drugs seemed to ward off Alzheimer's. The researchers are uncertain why aspirin and similar drugs might protect against Alzheimer's. The study's authors speculate that the drugs' heart benefits may offer an explanation, noting that low doses of aspirin are already known to help prevent heart disease. Aspirin and similar drugs improve blood flow to the heart and may improve the function of cells lining blood vessels.

People who care for the 4 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer's disease consider quality of life just as important as efforts to prolong the patient's life when choosing treatment options, according to researchers in a study reported in the October 10th issue of Neurology. Lead author Dr. Jason H. T. Karlawish, of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, and his team interviewed 40 primary caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients, none currently living in a nursing home. The caregivers were asked how their choice of treatment was affected by the potential to lengthen their charge's overall survival, to slow the progression of the disease, or to delay the transfer of the patient to a nursing home. The investigators also measured the caregivers' willingness to risk the development of negative side effects from a treatment in order to affect the overall course of the disease's progression.

Over 50% of caregivers said that improving the patient's quality of life was a more important treatment benefit than either lengthening survival time or delaying a move to a nursing home. Other benefits similarly valued included preserving the patient's memory; ability to communicate and recognize the family; improving the patient's mood; and improving the ability to manage basic daily physical activities. Karlawish and his colleagues also found that the caregivers' ability to assess quality-of-life issues was influenced by his or her own level of depression and burden--so that their judgment when choosing treatment might be affected by a desire to alleviate their own related stresses.

Overall, most caretakers were willing to risk possible side effects in order to delay the disease progression by 1 year--with the goal of delaying a move to a nursing home playing a major role in the caregivers' assessment of quality of life.

The Ontario provincial government is providing $6.3 million to expand and enhance adult day programs and respite services for people with Alzheimer Disease, Health and Long-Term Care Minister Elizabeth Witmer announced. The funding will be provided to 80 agencies across Ontario and now serve over 4,000 people, including 2,300 new clients.

A study released by the National Academy on an Aging Society found that care for people with Alzheimers Disease can be very costly. The average cost for a person with Alzheimers who is still living at home is $12,572 a year, primarily for social services, like adult day care, homemaker services, and meal services. This cost is borne primarily by the patient or family, since most of these costs are not covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance. The study also found that the lives of caregivers for Alzheimer's patients are more impacted by caregiving demands than those who care for people without dementia. Dementia caregivers were more likely to take time off of work (57% to 49%) and give up leisure activities (55% to 41%).