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Mother and daughter
MedicAlert® Safely Home® gives families living with dementia peace of mind

MedicAlert® Safely Home® gives families living with dementia peace of mind

It was a cold, rainy December morning in Vancouver when paramedics spotted a woman in wet clothes, looking out of place at a bus stop. Kathryn had been missing for 27 hours by then. Her daughter had dispatched a small army of friends to look for her after she failed to come home from her walk the previous morning. “It was brutal. I thought she was dead. The paramedics brought her to the hospital and they admitted her,” recalls her…

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How to enhance safety for people with dementia
Enhancing safety for people with dementia

Enhancing safety for people with dementia

Imagine if someone you love goes missing. The worry can be agonizing. When the person has dementia, it takes it up a notch or two. That’s why MedicAlert Foundation Canada partnered with the Alzheimer Society of Canada in 2013 to help people living with dementia who are at risk of getting lost. MedicAlert’s service—along with its well-recognized engraved bracelet—was launched in 1961 to help emergency responders treat people quickly and effectively when they couldn’t speak for themselves. .

A journey through dementia: Savouring the gifts

A journey through dementia: Savouring the gifts

by Elaine MacLachlan My mother died of Parkinson’s disease and dementia two weeks before her 88th birthday.  That was over 5 years ago.  It was a long and often difficult journey.  Looking back now, instead of regret and sadness, I choose to remember the gifts she gave me during that time. And, there were many.  Those are the things I cherish. Her health started to decline around the age of 80 when she fell down the stairs fracturing her pelvis….

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Announcing the top 10 Canadian dementia research priorities

Announcing the top 10 Canadian dementia research priorities

[Le texte en français suit l’anglais ci-bas.] By Drs. Katherine McGilton and Jennifer Bethell Over the course of the past year, we asked Canadians affected by dementia—either personally or through their work—for their unanswered questions about living with dementia, dementia prevention, treatment and diagnosis. This study, also known as the Canadian Dementia Priority Setting Partnership, set out to identify the top 10 dementia research priorities, and to share them with Canadian researchers and research funding organizations. We thank the over…

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Pauline Tardif
Get to know our new CEO: Pauline Tardif

Get to know our new CEO: Pauline Tardif

Pauline Tardif was appointed the new CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Canada on March 20, 2017. We recently sat down with Pauline to learn more about her background, her goals for the Alzheimer Society, and her life outside of work.

Nightmares or the Orange Pill

Nightmares or the Orange Pill

I’m tired this morning. The lingering affects of my nightmares stays with me. One of the characteristics of Frontotemporal dementia is sleep disturbances. In addition to this I have been diagnosed with REM sleep behavioural disorder. This “… is a disorder in which you physically act out vivid, often unpleasant dreams with vocal sounds and sudden, often violent arm and leg movements during REM sleep.” Normally you don’t move during REM sleep. About 20 % of your sleep is spent…

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What I learned caring for Grandma

What I learned caring for Grandma

It is difficult to understand Alzheimer’s disease until you are living with someone who has it. For me it was when my Grandma got it. She had lived with us for my entire life, and played a huge role in my upbringing. First it was the little things, simple tasks that we take for granted, such as preparing a meal. While I could deal with changes like that, the hardest part was accepting that someone who had always protected and…

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I have what? Frontotemporal dementia?

I have what? Frontotemporal dementia?

As I drove us to the 9:00 a.m. meeting with Dr. Didyk a geriatrician, many thoughts ran through my head. Here we go, another appointment with another doctor. One more stupid test. I hate when they ask me to write down the clock time because I know what time it is. I’m looking forward to my Timmy’s coffee. Once Dawn and I arrived at the hospital, we grabbed a coffee and headed off to the waiting room of the gerontology…

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