Caregivers

A yoga meditation program could reduce depression symptoms and boost mental health, a study finds, and that's not all - it may also show benefits at the cellular level. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , involved 49 caregivers ranging in age from 45 to 91 who were taking care of family members with dementia. Caregivers are at risk for high stress levels, often with no outlet or relief, which can lead to health problems. The participants were randomly assigned to two programs: Kundalini yoga Kirtan Kriya meditation or passive relaxation with instrumental music.

Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer'sdiseasetreatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025. In unveiling a first-ever "national strategy" on Alzheimer's disease, Collins launched several new projects and clinical trials--including a whole-genome sequencing effort to identify genes that confer vulnerability to--or protection against-- Alzheimer's, and a trial to explore whether an inhaled form of insulin will slow progression of the disease.

Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer'sdiseasetreatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025. In unveiling a first-ever "national strategy" on Alzheimer's disease, Collins launched several new projects and clinical trials--including a whole-genome sequencing effort to identify genes that confer vulnerability to--or protection against-- Alzheimer's, and a trial to explore whether an inhaled form of insulin will slow progression of the disease.

Clarence Ayers was baffled. At 73, he was raising his great-granddaughter in rural Fresno County. He relied on $334 a month in public assistance to help cover the teenager's expenses: new shoes when she outgrew her old ones, transportation to the after-school activities she enjoyed. But last summer, county officials said they were slicing his CalWorks payment by 10% and for the most perplexing of reasons: Over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and grandfather.

HONOLULU -- Home-based caregivers of ill or elderly family members are under enormous physical and mental stress, but daily meditative yoga may be a simple, effective strategy for maintaining health, according to a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn . UCLA researchers Helen Lavretsky and Michael Irwin conducted an eight-week, randomized trial on the effects of meditation exercise on 49 people who...

If you're caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's, you're in plenty of company. Nearly 11 million people take care of the 5.3 million Americans with the disease, a number that's expected to grow to almost 16 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Assn. The demands of care-taking often place enormous pressure on a family's time and resources. A 2009 AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving survey found that caregivers — most commonly middle-aged women caring for a parent — give more than 20 hours of their time per week.

The House voted 419 to 0 on Wednesday to approve new benefits and financial support for the primary live-in caregivers of seriously wounded veterans who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure, which would cost about $1.7 billion over five years, is part of comprehensive legislation that would permit the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its assistance to family members of veterans generally. Among other things, the bill also calls for seven days of post-delivery care for female veterans' newborns and more accessible healthcare for veterans living in rural areas.

The article "Cancer's Toll on Marriage" (July 16) by Judy Foreman clearly outlined what stress in a medical crisis does to a marriage. Caregivers may survive emotional strain but their physical health suffers. They have been found to have lower activity levels of immune cells that kill infectious intruders and destroy tumor cells before they become full-blown cancer as reported in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Studies have found that people caring for ailing relatives also tend to gain more weight and have higher cholesterol and blood pressure than non-caregivers.

Taking care of somebody with a chronic health problem is like running a marathon, a long and grueling experience. "If you give it all your energy upfront, you exhaust yourself," warned Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the assistant director of the Los Angeles Alzheimer's Assn. "You just have to pace yourself."

For 11-year-old Halleijah Franklin, it was an honor to serve a pre- Mother's Day brunch to Joyce Griffis. "She's so caring, so loving. If she wouldn't have taken care of me, I probably would be in the system," Franklin said of her maternal grandmother. "She buys me clothes and takes me places and loves me just like she's my mom." Griffis was one of dozens of grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members who were thanked Saturday for stepping in to care for children when their parents could not. The event, held in South Los Angeles, was sponsored by the Community Coalition.

A yoga meditation program could reduce depression symptoms and boost mental health, a study finds, and that's not all - it may also show benefits at the cellular level. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , involved 49 caregivers ranging in age from 45 to 91 who were taking care of family members with dementia. Caregivers are at risk for high stress levels, often with no outlet or relief, which can lead to health problems. The participants were randomly assigned to two programs: Kundalini yoga Kirtan Kriya meditation or passive relaxation with instrumental music.

My 82-year-old mother has been accusing family members of spying on her, listening in on her phone conversations and entering her home when she's not there, among other things, off and on for about 10 years. She told her doctor she won't talk with us. Is there anything we can do? Are there resources and/or free counseling services to help us work out issues with our mom so we can talk with her doctor? You can try to contact your mom's doctor to discuss her condition, particularly given that you're concerned she may be suffering from dementia and unable to properly care for herself.

The first sentence in Dean Takahashi's e-mail was a relief. "Those stories were hard for me to read," he wrote, "but I thought you handled them well. " Then he gave me pause. "I wish you had more room to describe my brother. " Dean had a point. He'd just read my recent two-part series that looked at the state's first prison hospice. There, dying killers, rapists and thieves are graced with a profound compassion, much of it coming from a group of murderers who live in other parts of the prison and have been trained as caregivers.

Five disabled residents of a care facility in the Monterey County city of Marina died in a fire late Saturday night, authorities said Sunday. The two caregivers escaped from the single-story house, said Lt. Rick Janicki of the Marina Police Department. They were treated for smoke inhalation, as were three police officers and a firefighter. A sixth disabled resident also got out, but remained hospitalized late Sunday afternoon, Janicki said. It does not appear that anybody else lived there, he said.

State health officials are circulating a plan they say will help keep about 35,000 elderly and disabled Californians out of institutionalized care when Medi-Cal stops offering an adult day healthcare benefit in December. The plan released late Friday relies primarily on Medi-Cal managed care plans to find alternatives for beneficiaries, including additional hours of in-home supportive services, physical and occupational therapy, and social services. But care providers say the approach could fail because appropriate alternatives aren't always available and families would be forced to shuttle patients around town to obtain the services now offered at more than 300 adult day healthcare centers.

Caregiver Resource Centers , (800) 543-8312, http://www.cacrc.org , are available to assist caregivers in locating community resources and finding the in-home help. Lists of interview questions, employer and employee rights and responsibilities, and more detailed information on types of assistance available to caregivers can be obtained from the Caregiver Resource Center in each county. Suggestions include: — Consider hiring someone for a one-month trial. Explain that this would be an opportunity to see whether this is a mutually acceptable arrangement.

I want to thank you for your coverage of the developmentally disabled and their resources (or lack of them) in your articles, "Without a Net" and "The Great Divide" (Feb. 6 and 7). The issues are so complex, and you presented many of the issues in an objective light. My husband and I have served the disabled of all ages and disabilities for over a combined 60-plus years, as teachers and administrators in public and private systems. We are "retired," but I currently direct a small agency in Redondo Beach that offers day activities to adults with developmental disorders.

HONOLULU -- With the first of the baby boomers turning 65 this year, the nation should brace itself for a growing number of older people with dementia and other types of mental illnesses, psychiatrists reported Monday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn. It's not that mental illness is becoming more common in older people. The problem is that 20% of the U.S. population will be 65 and older by 2030 -- an increase from about 12% now. Life expectancy is also increasing, so people are living more years with dementia and other types of mental illnesses that can cause aggressive behaviors, delusions, wandering from homes or care facilities and other problematic behavior.

Here are some places to look for advice about hiring a person to help care for parents. AARP caregiving assistance . Articles, tools and discussions. Specific information about hiring can be found at AARP's Caregiving Resource Center's pages for: -- Home care workers -- In-home care providers -- How to hire urgently needed in-home care Alzheimers Assn. offers assistance 24 hours a day at its helpline, (800) 272-3900, providing brochures and information in several languages.

My friend's phone call numbed me. Twice in the last week, she said, she'd seen my mother sitting in a car in a neighborhood near her home. "Today she was there for more than two hours in the heat," she added. My stomach churned. Mom suffered from dementia; she could no longer drive, or even speak coherently most of the time. She hadn't gotten to the area my friend was talking about on her own. It had to be Ann, her caregiver, who had been "taking her to the park" almost daily.