Eileen Taylor is a wife of fifty years, a mother to two sons and a toy poodle, and a grandmother to five. Eileen was a counsellor before she retired shortly after learning, at aged 59 years, that she has the gene for Alzheimer’s disease. Eileen describes living with...
Do you usually listen to what telemarketers have to say? Do you believe that if something sounds too good to be true, that it usually is? These were two of five questions presented to 935 dementia-free 76-86 year old research participants living in Chicago, and then...
Dementia rates among older Australians accessing home or long-term care services are declining according to a large-scale evaluation undertaken by the SAHMRI-based Registry of Older South Australians. Using the largest sample of people accessing aged care services in...
We know exercise is good for our brain, but how? It is well known that regular exercise protects against cognitive decline. The evidence underpins the World Health Organization recommendation that adults aged 65 years and over participate in a minimum 150 minutes of...
A study published last week by researchers from UNSW and ANU, found that eating a MIND diet, a Mediterranean- based diet with a few purposeful brain health tweaks backed by science, reduced the risk of dementia.What did the study do? The investigation followed 1220...
The Dementia Experience should not be so Hard Jane Thompson’s husband, Alan Newsome, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease when she was in her early fifties and he was 69; their son was in his last year of school. Alan died within four years of the diagnosis. Jane...
Danijela has dedicated her last ten years to supporting people living with dementia and of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Fluent in French, English, Slovenian and Italian, “I see the sparkle in their eyes when I speak to them in their mother...
Mabel’s mother developed vascular dementia after a significant stroke, and a couple of years later her father developed Alzheimer’s disease. Both of her parents passed away within several months of each other. She describes the final years with them as being like,...
Michael’s Motivation to Find a Cure for His Wife’s Dementia Michael Shirley, once a children’s book publisher and owner of several childcare centres, retired early to care for his wife Bronwyn. After she was diagnosed with dementia two years ago, he recalls the money...
Dennis Frost recalls feeling happy when he received his diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia six years ago, aged 59 years. “I finally had an explanation for things that were occurring” he says. He adds that his son’s reaction was one of concern; to him his...