Lawmakers in Wisconsin and Indiana have said they will propose bills to create the program, and a newspaper in Tennessee is calling for similar action. Any new programs would join 13 states that already have created Silver Alerts.

The need for the program is clear. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 60 percent of Alzheimer’s patients who are suffering from dementia will wander from their home or care facility.

States participating in the program now include:

• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Virginia

In Wisconsin, State Sen. Mary Lazich is heading a bipartisan effort with Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink. Lazich is a Republican and Vruwink a Democrat.

A common concern for officials is the cost of the program. For example, two years ago New York state elected not to implement it citing costs. But the Wisconsin lawmakers believe the technology already in place for such programs as the Amber Alert reduces the cost impact of a similar program for Alzheimer’s-related dementia.

In Indiana, Republican Sen. Pat Miller will introduce a bill for a Silver Alert program. Interest in the effort grew when lawmakers in neighboring Kentucky unanimously approved a bill creating the “Golden Alert” program, identical to the Silver Alert. In its first year, Kentucky’s Golden Alert helped find 12 Alzheimer’s patients who had wandered from home.

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The program, called Assisting Family Caregivers, recognizes the emotional, physical and financial stresses that can impact a family member providing Alzheimer’s care, said David Coon, AFC director, who also is a professor at Arizona State University.

Among the program’s goals is to increase caregivers’ skill at

• managing dementia-related behavioral challenges
• managing the stresses and mood changes they experience as caregivers
• effectively communicating with the Alzheimer’s patient, family members and health care professionals

Assisting Family Caregivers has partnered with the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium – which has provided support since the program started – and other community organizations in Phoenix and statewide.

The training provided ranges from group sessions to one-on-one instruction by phone. Participants are interviewed in their homes before and after the training and receive $50 in exchange for completing the course. The training can be conducted in English or Spanish, and the program currently is seeking participants in Phoenix and southern Arizona, Coon said.

The quarter of a million dollar grant is funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging. Family caregivers who would like to be considered for participation in the program can contact Coon’s Arizona State University West Campus office at (602) 543-6364 (English) and (602) 327-6010 (Spanish).

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The Institute on Aging operates the bay area’s Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center. Working with StoryCorps, a national oral history project, Alzheimer’s patients, along with a family member, are guided by story-telling experts to recount favorite and important moments from their lives. The 40-minute sessions are recorded in a mobile studio. The stories are preserved on CDs with a copy being given to the participant, and, with permission, a second copy going to a database in the Library of Congress.

StoryCorps is a non-profit organization sponsored by National Public Radio and the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. Since 2003, StoryCorps volunteers have recorded more than 23,000 personal histories. Each recording session is conducted by a volunteer trained to help the teller recount his or her story and supported by a recording technician.

Tracy Chesna, who directs programs at the Alzheimer’s care center, said she and her staff hear “amazing stories” of their patients’ lives every day and immediately saw the value in helping families preserve these memories. As an irreversible, progressive brain disease, Alzheimer’s patients suffer memory loss, which worsens over time.

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The short answer: No.

No less impressive an organization than the Mayo Clinic thought this an important enough topic to report on. The clinic’s website has a “Connect with an Expert” section, and blogger Angela Lunde used it to address the flu shot topic.

Lunde checked with Dr. Brad Boeve in the Department of Behavioral Neurology. Boeve said there is no evidence that vaccines for flu contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. As has been reported, scientists have found a link between the development of amyloid protein and Alzheimer’s, and there is no connection between a flu vaccine and amyloids. Some books have suggested such a relationship, Lunde wrote.

According to the Mayo Clinic web site, the flu is deadly in itself, and people should not be concerned about getting a flu shot if the reason they are avoiding it is fear of the shot contributing to Alzheimer’s disease.

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The national organization is committed to a vision of “a world without Alzheimer’s,” and to that end, the group has created a website with a letter that can be electronically “signed” by those supporting the initiative.

The letter calls on Obama to lead efforts to eradicate Alzheimer’s disease. Its introduction will educate the new president on Alzheimer’s basic such as:

• A new case of Alzheimer’s develops ever 71 seconds in America.
• Alzheimer’s will affect one in eight members of the Baby Boom generation.
• Alzheimer’s is deadly to those who have it and takes away memories and the opportunity to live independently.
• The disease is also devastating to family members.
• Alzheimer’s results in lost productivity that costs our nation billions of dollars including a strain on the healthcare system.

The association’s letter calls on Obama to make his plans clearly known regarding Alzheimer’s disease and asks that any plans include the following:

• More federal funding now
• Affordable care for Alzheimer’s sufferers who are younger than 65
• Adapting Medicare to meet the needs of Alzheimer’s patients
• Support and services for both Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers.

Bloggers are already starting to get the word out about the letter and encourage people to take part.

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The Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program has authorized $50,000 for a study titled “Measuring Medication Adherence and Barriers to Medical Care in Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders.” The lead researcher on the grant will be Joshua M. Thorpe. He works at the Social and Administrative Sciences Division of the UW-Madison Pharmacy School, where he is an assistant professor.

The money is considered a “pilot grant,” to start the research, which is expected to take two years. Thorpe will be working with Betty Chewning, professor in Social and Administrative Sciences, and Carolyn Thorpe, research scientist in the Department of Population Health Sciences.

UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health works with the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center of Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in to form the Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program. The aim of the program is to bring together academic, clinical and research experts from the organizations under one roof.

Photo: Joshua Thorpe, UW-Madison

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“Our department is thrilled to be able to implement this vital program,” Portsmouth Fire Chief Jeffrey Lynch told the East Bay Newspapers. “Last year, we were involved in a search and rescue effort to locate a man from Prudence Island who suffered from Alzheimer’s and wandered from his home. We were able to locate him the following day, but he later succumbed to his injuries. Had he been wearing a wristband, we would have found him almost immediately and his tragic death could have been prevented.”

A benefactor from out of state donated the money for the program that funds equipment and training for using the bracelets. Portsmouth firefighters are the first officials in Rhode Island to receive the system, which is provided by the FOUND Program of the National Autism Association.

The money will provide five of the $300 tracking wristbands to families with demonstrated financial need, plus one year of the $25 annual maintenance fee.

Wendy Fournier, who is president of the National Autism Association, told the newspaper that people receiving the equipment can gain peace of mind for their loved ones who suffer from a cognitive impairment and are prone to wander.

“Many are non-verbal and do not respond to a searcher calling for them,” she said.

The bracelet’s broadcast range is about a mile, and once reported as misssing, the average wandering patient is found within 30 minutes, Fournier said.

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“These findings show that counseling and support of family members can be of significant benefit to Alzheimer’s caregivers even when the patients are receiving medications for the disease,” said Dr. Mary Mittelman. “Caregivers who are less depressed are better able to take care of their ill family members. Social support and counseling for family members of people with Alzheimer’s disease should be considered essential components of optimal comprehensive care.”

Mittelman is the director of the Psychosocial Research and Support Program at the New York University School of Medicine Silberstein Institute and is on the editorial advisory board for the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

The research into this issue concerned 158 older men and women providing home care for a spouse suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Each Alzheimer’s patient in the study was taking donepezil, which also is known as Aricept, and is used to treat the disease’s.

Scientists from institutions in three nations participated in the study, including: NYU Medical Center, the U.K.’s University of Manchester, and the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre at the University of New South Wales’s School of Psychiatry in Sydney, Australia. Under conditions of the study caregivers were split into two groups with one group receiving normal supportive care and education and the other getting enhanced counseling and support services that had been shown to be beneficial.

Those receiving the enhanced support program felt less isolated and depressed. The study could have far-reaching effects as almost 10 million people in the U.S. alone provide care for an Alzheimer’s disease patient. Estimates worldwide are that caregivers number 25 million.

The enhanced support developed at NYU covered:

• Caregiver education about Alzheimer’s effects on the patient and strategies for managing care and responding to symptoms.
• Continued support for the caregiver and family members including counseling and encouragement.
• Working to reduce family conflicts

Resutls of the study were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

“As we search for a cure or a way of preventing Alzheimer’s disease, we cannot forget about the millions of family members who are caring for relatives who are currently ill,” Mittelman said.

Image: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

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“Our goal in developing this unprecedented quality rating system is to provide families a straightforward assessment of nursing home quality, with meaningful distinctions between high and low performing homes,” said Kerry Weems, who is the CMS acting administrator. “The new information will also help consumers and families identify important questions to ask nursing homes and challenge nursing homes to improve their quality of care.”

In the new rating system, each nursing home will get a rating of one to five. These star ratings will flow from health inspections, staff information, and quality of care measures. Got to Nursing Home Compare web site at www.medicare.gov to see the ratings.

The criteria to rate nursing homes were developed with input from experts from academia, patient advocacy, and nursing home provider groups. The three ranking areas include:

• Health inspection surveys. State and federal surveyors go on site annually at the 15,800 nursing home to assess health care services and regulatory compliance . Additionally, about about 50,000 complaints are investigated yearly. Ratings were developed from the three last years of survey information.
• Quality measures. Using 10 quality measures available on the Nursing Home Compare web site, the ratings are further developed. These measures include percent of at-risk residents with pressure ulcers after the initial 90 days in a home, the number of residents with worsening mobility after admission, and residents receiving correct medical care.
• Staffing information. This documents hours of care by medical and other staff per patient per day.

Resulting from these posted measurements, the public can see a a quality rating for each area and total score. The ratings are updated monthly.

“Around three million Americans depend on nursing homes at some point during each year to provide life-saving care,” Weems said. “Most of those individuals are enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare and we all bear a special responsibility to protect their health and welfare. Adding this new quality rating system to our Web site is a huge step toward giving our beneficiaries and their loved ones meaningful information to compare nursing homes more easily.”

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Remember, just as at home, over-stimulation and new situations and people can be stressful for one experiencing Alzheimer’s-related dementia. As a result, take the time to carefully plan your trip with your loved one’s special needs in mind.
Here are a few points for consideration:

Keep it simple. Disorientation can be exacerbated by exhaustion. So don’t try to do more than one or two things a day.

Try to get ready for tomorrow tonight. Consider choosing and setting out the clothes both of you will need for the one or two events coming up, and that will give you needed extra time to get ready in the morning.

Bring along known, favorite possessions when going to a new place. This can be simple things such as a blanket or pillow.

If you’re in a new place, chances are good it won’t be secured as your home is. Check for latches.

As much as possible, stick to the schedule you have at home to create a sense of comforting continuity. This includes easy-to-plan activities such as meals and rest or sleep times.

Make sure your luggage has wheels, you’ll need the extra hand, and be certain you keep all vital documents and possessions for both of you.

If flying, advise the airline of your special needs. Their help will make the trip better for you and other passengers.

Finally, your trip can be a great experience and a needed change of pace, but you’ll be doing the work of two. Rest before you go and plan time in your travel schedule for rest to keep you fresh.

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The Internet Movie Database

Emmy-winning actor Peter Falk is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and needs protection from being defrauded, according to published reports of court papers filed by his daughter.
Falk, 81, is well-known for his long-running television series Columbo, for which he won TV’s top acting award. In that series, he played a rumpled and seemingly-bumbling police detective who would frustrate crime suspects with his rambling, forgetful persona, always asking, “Just one more thing . . .”

Documents filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior court by Catherine Falk, the actor’s daughter, said he needs “constant care” and is suffering from dementia, according to media reports. The documents also are reported to say Falk “requires full-time custodial care” for his safety and because he can no longer guard himself from “fraud or undue influence.”

Neither Falk nor any representatives have commented.Prior to his television success, Falk was twice nominated for the Academy Award in the films Pocket Full of Miracles and Murder, Inc.