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Early signs of dementia
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January is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and the number of people being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and related dementia is expected to double in the next 20 years. While to many people senior citizens are the face of Alzheimer’s more and more young people are being diagnosed with it.
More than 750-thousand Canadians have dementia related diseases and 15 percent of those are under age 65. Alzheimer’s is a set of symptoms caused by a disorder affecting the brain. Early onset Alzheimer’s is particularly hard on people living with it because they’re not the typical face of the disease.
55-year old Phyllis Fehr was an ER nurse. Five years ago she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s: “If I had two patients, I’d be in one patients room and totally forget I had another patient, until I came out.”
That’s when she realized she couldn’t work any longer. Fehr is one of the 15 percent of Alzheimer’s patients who are under the age of 65. She says she felt out of place at Alzheimer support meetings.
Fehr: “Most of the people in the room were in their 70’s and you could see them looking at us and I could see them thinking ‘oh, that poor girl’, she’s so young to have a husband with Alzheimer’s.”
Fehr has the dubious distinction of being part of two growing and unique groups with Alzheimer’s — women and younger people. So she’s joined a support group of early onset Alzheimer’s clients. The group meets twice a month and to exercises to keep the brain fit and encourage each other.
While living with Alzheimer’s has a profound impact on those diagnosed with it, it also has a huge impact on family members who are usually the primary care givers.
“You’re life is done, it’s over from how you knew it.” 58-year old Sherry Gale’s husband has dementia: “He used to love music, doesn’t even know how to turn the stereo on, the only thing he can eat is apples out of the fridge unless I make something for him, he can’t drive, he can’t pick his own clothes out.”
She can’t leave him alone for even a few minutes: “I have no privacy or no life of my own anymore.”
The Alzheimer’s Society is calling for a national strategy to help both those living with dementia and those caring for them.
Mary Burnett, Alzheimer’s Society: “We really need as a community to develop a better way of finding ways to support these families through our faith groups, through new and innovative housing models, through more home care support, because it’s a disease that’s going to cripple us as a community if we don’t do something now.”
There are some warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The main ones are confusion, short term memory loss and behavioural changes. The Alzheimer’s Society has a number of events and fundraisers planned for the month of January.
Alive Inside: Thursday, January 22nd, 2015. Royal Botanical Gardens 7-9pm. RSVP: 905-529-7030
