Ventura County participants are joining in with others across the country to fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s by doing an activity that they love for The Longest Day — an Alzheimer’s Association

fundraiser that culminates on the summer solstice, the day with the most light.

“The Longest Day is a fun way for people to join the fight to end Alzheimer’s and other dementia by involving their business, friends and family in any hobby or activity of their choice,” said Jeffery Glover, Development Specialist with the California Central Coast Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. “All proceeds provide local care and support, as well as critical global research.”

This year, fundraising activities are taking form in a variety of different ways, from bake sales to video game tournaments.

Leila Thayer Malone has been restoring pieces of antique furniture in her workshop, which she describes as her “happy place.”

Riptide Big Band, the Central Coast’s premier 15-piece dance band, will be playing a concert at a senior club.

Laura DeLoye is doing dance-grams while dressed up as Uma the Unicorn, a returning event from last year that successfully raised over $2,500 in 2020.

Others are taking advantage of the beautiful outdoors along California’s central coast.

Juerg Geser will be paddle boarding in the Channel Islands Harbor from sunrise to sunset on June 20, accompanied by local friends and others around the world.

Glover shares that the need for support is greater than ever. “There are over 690,000 Californians currently living with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia, with over one million caregivers watching over them,” says Glover. “The chances are very high that you or someone you know has been affected by this disease in one way or another.”

To learn more or get involved in The Longest Day, visit alz.org/tld or contact Jeffery Glover at [email protected].

People with dementia have a higher risk of getting COVID-19, are more likely to require hospitalization, and are more likely to have severe or fatal cases of this disease compared with people without dementia. This risk is even higher in Black patients with dementia, according to a new study funded in part by NIA and published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

A person’s age and preexisting health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are significant risk factors for serious illness from COVID-19. Interestingly, these factors are also linked to dementia. However, scientists and doctors have little information about how COVID-19 affects people who have dementia. The new study, led by researchers at Case Western Reserve University, used information from the electronic health records of about 61.9 million U.S. adults from all 50 states to explore the link between dementia and COVID-19. The data was collected as part of the IBM Watson Health Explorys database. In this dataset, more than 1 million patients had dementia, 15,770 had COVID-19, and 810 had both.

The study found that people with dementia were twice as likely to get COVID-19 compared with people without dementia, even after adjusting for age, sex, living in a nursing home, and having similar preexisting conditions. The researchers suggest that the memory problems associated with dementia might make it difficult for patients to stick to safety measures such as wearing masks, washing hands frequently, and social distancing.

Results showed that 73% of Black patients with dementia and 54% of White patients with dementia were hospitalized within 6 months of their COVID-19 diagnosis, compared with 25% of patients without dementia. Only 20% of Black patients with dementia but not COVID-19 and 12% of White patients with dementia but not COVID-19 were hospitalized within the same time frame. Patients of either race with dementia were almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than patients without dementia. The researchers also found that vascular dementia, which is caused by damage to the vessels that supply blood to the brain, led to the highest risk of COVID-19, suggesting that damaged blood vessels might make it easier for disease-causing bacteria and viruses to get from a person’s blood into the brain.

Although their findings need to be replicated using other databases and registries, the researchers note that the study lays the foundation for future research into the interactions between COVID-19 and brain diseases, including whether COVID-19’s effects on the brain increase the risk of or worsen dementia. The study demonstrates the need for innovative and effective measures to protect older adults with dementia from COVID-19 as part of controlling the pandemic and highlights the pressing need to address health disparities.

This research was supported in part by NIA grants AG057557 and AG062272.

Reference: Wang Q, et al. COVID-19 and dementia: Analyses of risk, disparity, and outcomes from electronic health records in the US. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2021, Feb 9. doi: 10.1002/alz.12296. E-published ahead of print.

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe conditions affecting the brain that get worse over time. Researchers have connected changes in the brain that damage nerve cells to certain forms of dementia. The five most common forms of dementia are listed below.

Alzheimer’s disease is typically associated with abnormal buildups of proteins in the brain along with a loss of connection among nerve cells.

Vascular dementia is caused by vascular changes in the brain, such as a stroke or injury to small vessels carrying blood to the brain.

Lewy body dementia is typically associated with abnormal deposits of a protein (Lewy bodies) in the brain.

Frontotemporal dementia is often linked to abnormal amounts or forms of proteins and the loss of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes.

Mixed dementia refers to when someone has a combination of brain changes associated with different forms of dementia, such as both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Find more information on the causes of dementia on Alzheimers.gov.

Senior News Line
by Matilda Charles

If you’re confused about COVID vaccine and when our lives are going to change for the better, you’re not alone.

We’re considered to be fully vaccinated once two weeks have passed after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson.

What’s new is this, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: If fully vaccinated, you can be indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask. You can meet indoors with unvaccinated people in one household unless one of those people has a health risk. If you’ve been around someone who has COVID, you don’t have to stay away from people or get tested unless you have symptoms … or live in a group setting. In that case, stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.

Clear as mud, right?

It gets worse. According to the CDC, as fabulous as this new vaccine is, even if fully vaccinated, we still need to wear masks in public. We still need to social distance. We still need to avoid medium and large crowds. We still need to stay out of poorly ventilated spaces. We should delay travel.

So what’s the holdup? Why are we still under restrictions after getting the vaccine? The best I can figure out is that the answer lies with the COVID variants, the different versions created as the virus mutates. It appears that not all of the vaccines work equally well on all of the variants. Frankly, some of the vaccines work rather poorly, depending on which variant it encounters.

Until scientists figure this out, we still need to be cautious: wear masks, stay away from people, stay out of crowds. Except for getting the vaccine, not much has changed.

A Box of Greeting Cards

A few months ago, I got the idea to send greeting cards to some residents of a local nursing home who were locked down and not allowed to have visitors. It started small: a box of greeting cards and the first names of some of the residents, courtesy of the facility director. The idea has, to put it mildly, expanded.

First there was the call from the facility director wanting to know if I could enlarge my list because the residents were talking among themselves about who got cards and who didn’t.

“Certainly,” I said, and bought more cards.

A further expansion came when a woman called me saying that her mother was in that facility, but her mother-in-law was in another local place, and would I send cards to a few people there as well?

“Certainly,” I said, and bought more cards.

You see where this is going? It wasn’t long before I knew I needed some help. It wasn’t only signing and addressing the cards, it was writing an individual letter to go in each envelope.

I called the guidance counselor at the high school and the ideas just flew. The service club is writing letters; they roped in the art club, which is producing individual drawings and paintings for each nursing home resident. The chorus stepped up and is planning an outdoor concert in the front of each facility when the weather warms up. (At this point they practice their music on Zoom calls.) And two students have initiated a project wherein they’re collecting craft supplies for the therapist at the nursing home to use with the residents.

Does this sound like something you can start in your own area? You can start small. All it takes is a box of greeting cards — and a few ideas.

(c) 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.

by Matilda Charles

A third round of stimulus payments are on their way. But has your second one shown up yet? Next question: Did you file last year’s 2019 taxes on paper instead of e-filing? If so, that might well be the reason you don’t have your money yet.

The IRS got behind on processing the paper tax forms we sent a year ago. If all had gone well, those who were eligible should have received a $600 stimulus check (the second one) by Jan. 29, 2021.

The IRS has a specific page for you to check the status of your stimulus payment, but it’s only good for the third stimulus check. All information for your first and second stimulus money has been removed from their website.

Start with www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment and scroll to Get My Payment. Click on it and fill out the information. You’ll go to a page that tells you the status of the payment you’re to receive now, the third payment. If it says that payment information is Not Available, it means you’re not going to receive a payment the easy way (and might be why your second payment is still missing). On the Get My Payment page, click on Frequently Asked Questions to see what applies to you.

Even if you don’t normally file, you’ll need to file for 2020 (preferably e-file) if you want that stimulus money quickly. Look for Line 30 on the Form 1040 or 1040-SR. It’s called the Recovery Rebate Credit. If you received Notice 1444 or 1444B in the mail from the IRS, it will tell you what figures to use.

Following President Biden’s announcement calling on Congress to put $400 billion toward expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities, the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging & Families (TFAF) leadership released the following statement:

“Quality, affordable health care should be accessible to every single American whether they’re able to travel to receive treatment or require care in their own homes,” said the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Aging and Families. “There is a crisis in caregiving that has plagued seniors, families and health care workers alike for too long, since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Too many families and caregivers – predominantly women – feel unseen as they struggle to provide for the health, safety and dignity of their loved ones. Today’s announcement is an acknowledgment that House Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration see you and that help is on the way.

“This investment of $400 billion into the care economy will make home care more affordable, accessible and dignified. It is particularly crucial for workers and families that President Biden has a plan to ensure that home health care providers have a pathway to good-paying jobs with union protections, as we know that when we support our caregivers and provide them with a better quality of life, the quality of care rises as well.

“This investment represents the beginning, not the end, of our collaboration with the Biden administration to support the workforce that empowers older Americans and people with disabilities to live in their own homes and communities.”

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan for improving the caregiving industry includes:

• $400 billion for expanding access to home and community-based services (HCBS).
• Extending the longstanding Money Follows the Person program that supports innovations in the delivery of long-term care.
• Supporting well-paying caregiving jobs that include benefits and the ability to collectively bargain.
• Building state infrastructure to improve the quality of services and to support workers.

Vice Chair Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Co-Chair Conor Lamb (D-PA) and Vice Chair Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) led a letter with 108 of their colleagues to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris reiterating the importance of including home- and community-based services (HCBS) in the Build Back Better infrastructure package. A copy of the letter can be found here. The Task Force on Aging and Families has advocated for the importance of HCBS for families throughout the pandemic, including in its April 2020 principles for protecting the health and dignity of older Americans amid COVID-19.

A caregiver, sometimes referred to as a caretaker, refers to anyone who provides care for another person. Millions of people living in the United States take care of a friend or family member with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Sometimes caregivers live with the person or nearby, other times they live far away. For many families, caring for a person with dementia isn’t just one person’s job, but the role of many people who share tasks and responsibilities. No matter what kind of caregiver you are, taking care of another person can be overwhelming at times. These tips and suggestions may help with everyday care and tasks.

Early on in Alzheimer’s and related dementias, people experience changes in thinking, remembering, and reasoning in a way that affects daily life and activities. Eventually, people with these diseases will need more help with simple, everyday tasks. This may include bathing, grooming, and dressing. It may be upsetting to the person to need help with such personal activities. Here are a few tips to consider early on and as the disease progresses:

• Try to keep a routine, such as bathing, dressing, and eating at the same time each day.
• Help the person write down to-do lists, appointments, and events in a notebook or calendar.
• Plan activities that the person enjoys and try to do them at the same time each day.
• Consider a system or reminders for helping those who must take medications regularly.
• When dressing or bathing, allow the person to do as much as possible.
• Buy loose-fitting, comfortable, easy-to-use clothing, such as clothes with elastic waistbands, fabric fasteners, or large zipper pulls instead of shoelaces, buttons, or buckles.
• Use a sturdy shower chair to support a person who is unsteady and to prevent falls. You can buy shower chairs at drug stores and medical supply stores.
• Be gentle and respectful. Tell the person what you are going to do, step by step while you help them bathe or get dressed.
• Serve meals in a consistent, familiar place and give the person enough time to eat.

Communication can be hard for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias because they have trouble remembering things. They also can become agitated and anxious, even angry. In some forms of dementia, language abilities are affected such that people have trouble finding the right words or have difficulty speaking. You may feel frustrated or impatient, but it is important to understand that the disease is causing the change in communication skills. To help make communication easier, you can:

• Reassure the person. Speak calmly. Listen to his or her concerns and frustrations. Try to show that you understand if the person is angry or fearful.
• Allow the person to keep as much control in his or her life as possible.
• Respect the person’s personal space.
• Build quiet times into the day, along with activities.
• Keep well-loved objects and photographs around the house to help the person feel more secure.
• Remind the person who you are if he or she doesn’t remember, but try not to say, “Don’t you remember?”
• Encourage a two-way conversation for as long as possible.
• Try distracting the person with an activity, such as a familiar book or photo album, if you are having trouble communicating with words.

Eating healthy and staying active is good for everyone and is especially important for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. As the disease progresses, finding ways for the person to eat healthy foods and stay active may be increasingly challenging. Here are some tips that may help: