Tools for Coordination Among Caregivers of Alzheimer's Disease Patients

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent studies have observed that reminiscence intervention is effective for increasing self- esteem and decreasing behavioral disturbances in individuals with dementia. The use of personalized reminiscence therapy foreach Alzheimer's patient can be a powerful tool for care providing staff in a nursing facility. Various groups have developed tools for the creation of media that can be used for personalized reminiscence therapy. These tools edit together life history stories, audio, pictures and video of an Alzheimer' patient's past. Unfortunately the creation of a database of each patient's life in the form of fact, events, photos, and video to do reminiscence intervention can be a major undertaking. It is difficult forbusy staff caregivers to acquire and retain knowledge of each patient's personal life experiences. When new caregivers begin to work with existing Alzheimer's patients, they need modern tools that they are accustom to using to acquire information about each of their patients life history. Multiple sources of information, such as the patient's siblings, friends and children may be needed to form a more complete set of useful data. A tool is proposed to generate a secure personalized reminiscence database for each dementia patient. Current and future staff caregivers will be able to securely access this information for use in the care and therapy of each Alzheimer's patient. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia. It is estimated that in 2009, 5.3 million Americans have AD. As the population ages, the number of people with AD will continue to increase to an estimated 7.7 million in 2030 and 11 to 16 million in 2050. The economic costs of treating and caringfor people with AD are substantial. Healthcare and long-term care services cost three times as much for individuals with AD or dementia. AD is a progressive disease that often begins with forgetfulness. In the early stages of AD people may have trouble remembering recent events or the names of familiar people or things. As AD progresses to middle stage, memory loss and confusion increase and people may have difficulty even recognizing family members, remembering appointments, or to take medication. When anindividual begins to experience cognitive loss there may be various behavioral consequences. They may experience changes in personality, a lesser sense of self, and a loss of independence. This can lead to symptoms which are challenges to caregivers. Examples of these are high levels of depression, grief, fear, and frustration, all of which have a significant impact on the well-being of the individual.