Alzheimer Society Blog

After my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I decided to do everything in my power to keep him at home as long as possible. Home could help him connect to his past and maintain a sense of who he was. I learned quickly that this decision meant I needed to adapt to the unique interests and abilities of my husband to encourage whatever independent skills he had left while making home a safe place. For example, Reg always enjoyed…

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I remember when my grandmother was living with dementia. I was a young girl and I remember my family struggled to care for her because we didn’t know anything about the disease. We thought she was just crazy because she couldn’t remember her sons’ names. Her disease led me to study neuroscience at Queen’s University. I wanted to understand the disease better so that this knowledge could be shared with others, especially caregivers. If people understood dementia better, they could…

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On October 24th, I had the privilege of attending “Cafe Conversations: Working Caregivers and Labour Market Challenges” at Hart House at the University of Toronto. The International Federation of Ageing hosted the conference and invited many leaders in the health-policy field, including: David Harvey of Alzheimer Society of Ontario Camille Offridge, CEO of the Toronto-central LIHN; Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Barbara G. Symiest Research Chair in Rehabilitation Technology, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and University of Toronto Dr. Jane Barratt, Secretary General of…

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A Thanksgiving greeting from the Alzheimer Society

I’ve always been interested in how the brain works. And there are so many ways of looking at it – through psychology, medicine and even philosophy. But once I chose medicine, I felt neurosurgery was the most interesting pathway to exploring what happens inside the brain. In some ways, neurosurgeons are like gatekeepers. If you want to study the brain, you often need to gain access through neurosurgery. While my specialty, functional neurosurgery, is about improving brain function, I didn’t…

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My name is Susan Bithrey. I am a caregiver. My life has been transformed since my husband Reg was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. In September, which is World Alzheimer’s Month, we learned that 35 million people around the globe have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia. But behind these diagnoses are those who are thrust into the role of caregiver. A new report from Alzheimer’s Disease International highlights their ever growing ranks and how caregivers worldwide lack…

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