Escondido, CA, July 26, 1998 — By Joy Glenner
Alzheimer's disease is the fourth-leading cause of death among American adults. It is a progressive, degenerative, irreversible brain disease that affects almost 50 percent of our senior population who are 85 years of age or older.
Until recently, Alzheimer's and other related dementing diseases were relatively unknown. Victims of these brain diseases were obscured by the popular misconception that loss of mental ability is a natural and inevitable aspect of aging (senility). However, Alzheimer's is not a normal consequence of growing old.
While many leading scientists are searching for the answer to this disease with a medically effective treatment, only behavioral management, medications, and memory enhancement drugs for short-term early onset patients currently are available. The best "treatment" of Alzheimer's patients is not medication. Rather, it remains massive doses of love and "tender loving care" that does the trick. A quality of life with meaningful days should be a primary goal of care providers.
As the number of elderly Americans increases, (the results of medical advancements and the general population curve), the number of Alzheimer's victims is expected to increase dramatically to 14 million to 15 million by the year 2040, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In industrialized countries, the 85-and-over age group is the fastest growing segment of the population.
With the number of Alzheimer's patients expected to triple in the next 50 years, the need to expand special care facilities, services and research is urgent. A new approach that challenges the mind and respects those with Alzheimer's is sorely needed.
Many of us have heard horror stories about residential care facilities that over-medicate Alzheimer's patients to keep behavior in line. A new cutting-edge approach utilized by Silverado Senior living in Escondido finds medication is not the primary key for treatment. The unique approach at Silverado actually restores a great deal of activity and quality to residents' lives with greatly reduced medication.
By creating a nurturing environment filled with pets, memory boxes, interactive cognitive materials, vegetable gardens, safe outside walkways and terraces, a caring staff and activities to challenge the minds of those with Alzheimer's, medication can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated altogether.
With the number of patients expected to triple, the need to expand care is urgent.
The Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers, together with Silverado Senior Living, hope to provide both residential care and day care for those suffering from Alzheimer's at a proposed new location in University City.
In its first year of operation in Escondido, Silverado has become a model for other Alzheimer's facilities to emulate. Silverado accepted 20 individuals into its residential care facility who were not mobile then, but are now able to walk, with little or no assistance.
Many could not even feed themselves upon admission. Today, they can. Testimonials abound from families who have witnessed quality of life and conditions of their loved ones improve dramatically with the proper care and attention.
The founder of the three Alzheimer's Family Centers serving San Diego County, the late Dr. George G. Glenner, who made a major scientific contribution in 1984 by identifying the Beta-amyloid protein of Alzheimer's disease, said, "We must focus on taking care of the living, while scientists pursue the answer to this dehumanizing disease."
Over the past 16 years, the Glenner centers have worked diligently to carry out their mission to provide access to quality, affordable, active, loving professional care for those suffering from Alzheimer's and related dementias. As our population quickly ages, it is a promise important to keep.
Preparing physicians for the changing population requires a new attitude on sub-specialties in the field of clinical practice. We must convince Congress to fund money for geriatric studies across the nation. Currently, most medical schools present a two-week rotation on geriatric medicine, or worst case, an elective study. Today, there are only 8,244 board certified physicians in geriatric medicine according to the Alliance for Aging Research, a Washington, D.C. based research group. This equates to two elderly specialists for every 10,000 Americans 65 or older.
More than three-quarters of a century after Alzheimer's disease was first described by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, the basic questions remain: What causes the disease? What are the risk factors? What is the treatment and cure? Although the answers still elude scientists, we have made progress.
As we move toward the future, we need to look to the past to understand how significantly placement in a facility has changed for Alzheimer's patients. A system once focused on skilled nursing care in institutional settings has now evolved to embrace care options of adult day health care and residential care.
