Alzheimer’s disease – The Concordian

The government of Canada has forgotten about Alzheimer patients. Institutions that care for seniors with some form of dementia appear to be those who receive the least attention when it comes to funding and support. If greater financial assistance were given to these institutions, tragic incidents like Frank Alexander’s death in 2011, caused by frightened Alzheimer’s patient Joe McLeod in an elder care facility in Manitoba, would not occur.

According to the National Post, McLeod was not found criminally responsible for the death. His condition causes him to suffer from occasional violent outbursts of anger due to confusion. He does not remember these episodes. Prior to being put into a home, McLeod lived with his wife. After several violent outbursts, the man was put into prison for a month awaiting a hearing. Is this really how we treat our Alzheimer’s patients in Canada?

These situations are not rare and they are not going away. According to the Alzheimer Society of Toronto, “within a generation, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia will more than double, ranging between 1 and 1.3 million people.”

Many with the disease have anger episodes due to the frustration of being constantly confused. Unfortunately, elder care facilities lack the proper training and funding to be able to take care of each patient based on their own specific needs, and jail is certainly not a suitable option either.

My grandmother has Alzheimer’s and I would certainly not feel comfortable with a man with a condition similar to McLeod’s staying at her care facility. However, I don’t think he should have been thrown into a jail either. The solution to the problem is for the government to stop clumping all Alzheimer patients into one category. Everyone has certain levels of the disease, some more severe than others, and everyone acts out in different ways. Each patient should be separated within the care facility, or there should be specialized facilities for each particular level of Alzheimer’s.

The Alzheimer Society of Canada says that “quality of life for people with dementia is largely dependent on their connection with others. Maintaining a relationship can be a complex and challenging process, especially when verbal communication is affected.”

Patients need different levels of care and I don’t think nurses are equipped or trained properly to handle each different scenario. This is going to cause a real problem, since the next generation is aging and are going to be in this situation as well.

Soon to be overcrowded care facilities may have to double up or triple up rooms in order to accept all patients, which can pose a serious threat if someone acts out just as McLeod did. Furthermore, as the National Post pointed out in an editorial published Jan. 4, if care institutions become too overcrowded, Alzheimer patients may be forced to go home with their families, which can be extremely costly, let alone worrisome. The Alzheimer Society of Toronto notes that “the impact of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias engulfs whole families, and affects far more than the half a million people living with the disease.”

It is time to pay greater attention to Alzheimer institutions and help support them so we can take better care of patients. Alzheimer’s is rated second as the disease that is most feared among aging Canadian, and we need to make Alzheimer’s patients a bigger priority in the near future.

With files from George Menexis.

Erin Johns, a doctoral student at Concordia University, conducted research aimed to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease by studying adults with mild cognitive impairment that are at high risk of developing the disease.

“It’s only a small piece of the puzzle,” Johns explained. “It’s contributing something small while hopefully helping something big.”

Adults who are at high risk of developing irreversible Alzheimer’s disease display problems with attention, memory, decision-making and problem solving are more likely to develop the irreversible Alzheimer’s disease. Executive functions are essential in controlling and regulating abilities and behaviour. Johns and her colleagues examined individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, which is often a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease, and tested them on measures of executive functioning.

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, characterized by deficiencies in behaviour, memory and cognitive abilities that are irreversible. An individual suffering from Alzheimer’s disease often has difficulty controlling what they say, which could be a sign of mild cognitive impairment.

“One of the things that was unique about this study is that we looked at multiple aspects of executive functioning,” explained Johns. “We gave them a lot of different tests.”

All participants failed at least one test, with more than half failing to pass each of the tests examined.

The test that nearly all research subjects failed was a sentence completion test. The test required patients to complete a sentence with a word that is not relevant to the subject of the phrase.

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease through neuropsychological testing could help individuals and families cope. The study was a collaborative effort that pooled research from seven different clinics province-wide, completed during the summer of 2006 and published May 2012.

The Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society published the results of the study funded by the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, under the supervision of Dr. Natalie Phillips.

Now, Johns is continuing with a follow-up study that is currently in the data analysis stage, while balancing an internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Johns believes that problems with executive functioning in Alzheimer’s disease may not be caused by damage to the brain per se, but a breakdown of communication.

“I wanted to see if, rather than damage to the brain if it’s a breakdown in the co-ordination of different brain areas causing the problem,” explained Johns. “Maybe it’s the different brain areas that are not communicating well anymore.”

Johns is a psychology student completing her post-graduate degree between courses at the Loyola Campus and attending research lab at the Jewish General Hospital. Johns completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba before she moved to Montreal to continue her education in 2006. The Winnipeg native is married, and is a mother as well.