Category Archives for Mental Health

Walkers Fight Alzheimer’s One Step at a Time

Published in the Pawtucket Times on September 22, 2003

Next Sunday, 87-year-old Ray Bonenfant continues his fight against the devastating Alzheimer’s Disease.

The Greenville resident and more than 1,000 participants are expected to walk three miles to raise money and public awareness regarding Alzheimer’s Disease during the Alzheimer Association’s 2003 Memory Walk in Providence, Newport, and Westerly.

Taking part in the Sept. 28 charitable event- the nonprofit group’s largest of the year – is just a continuation of Bonenfant’s personal fight against the ravages of Alzheimer’s, a disease that afflicts his wife and 25,000 Ocean State seniors. It is projected that in the next decade, 29,000 Rhode Islanders will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Bonenfant, a former controller at a New Hampshire company, began participating in the Alzheimer’s Associations annual fundraiser eight years ago, shorting after his wife, Eugenie, was admitted to an Alzheimer’s unit at the Village of Waterman Lake.

Participating in this fundraiser was one way he could personally improve the quality of life of caregivers and enhance the care and support services for families of Alzheimer’s patients.

Local news coverage of the impending 1993 Memory Walk caught Bonenfant’s attention and he joined hundreds of Rhode Islanders who came together with the goal of raising funds for the Alzheimer’s Association Rhode Island Chapter.

At this event, he signed up 30 of his family members and friends to participate in the three-mile walk, raising almost $ 700.

For the last eight walks, Bonenfant, who serves as a board member and treasurer of the Providence-based nonprofit group, has been one of the top individual fundraisers. “Walking to raise money gives me a lot of satisfaction,” he said, admitting that he also enjoys the competition of raising money.

Bonenfant also looks at participating in another way. “It is a good family day,” he added.

Last year, Bonenfant and 14 family members and friends raised a whopping $9,000. This year, he expects to ratchet this sizeable amount up to $10,000 with the assistance of loyal family members (two daughters, five grandchildren and their spouses and two great grandchildren). Of course, he’ll have several good friends on hand, too.

Bonenfant told Everything About Seniors he will be back next year to raise money.

“I am shooting for a decade of fund-raising,” he said, adding that daily exercise keeps him physically fit and will enable him to easily walk the three miles at Rogers  Williams Zoon.

Elizabeth Morancy, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Rhode Island Chapter, noted her nonprofit group is one of 80 chapters hosting a Memory Walk fundraiser.

Morancy, remembered that only 135 walkers gathered at India Point Park in Providence to walk at the first fundraiser held 11 years ago. The 1993 Memory Walk raised a total of $13,000, she said.

This year, Morancy expects more than 1,000 walkers to gather in Providence at Roger Williams Park Zoo, in Newport strolling down Bellevue Avenue and at the beach in Westerly, who will raise $ 210,000.

“Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease that affects the entire family,” noted Morancy. “It is absolutely imperative that we find effective treatments for Alzheimer’s patients while we continue to provide caregiver support to their families,” she said.

Morancy said funds raised by the annual Memory Walk funds the group’s Helpline and supports educational programs for professionals and provides assistance to the affiliated statewide support groups.

Moreover, Memory Walk funds also enable the nonprofit group to translate literature into different languages and to offer workshops in both Spanish and English, Morancy said.

Register today to participate in next Sunday’s 11th Annual Memory Walk and take small steps to ending the devastating impact of Alzheimer’s.

For those interested in walking, ask your family, friends and co-workers to sponsor you. Memory Walk brochures are available by calling 800-244-1428.

The Best Of…Music Reduces Alzheimer’s Patients’ Agitation

Published August 19, 2002, Pawtucket Times

        After not being home for two years, I traveled to Dallas to visit my family and to celebrate my 88-year old father’s birthday party last week.

        My trip was a bittersweet experience for me as I reconnected with my parents and siblings.  It was great to spend time and catch up with everyone, but I saw firsthand how Alzheimer’s Disease had ravaged, both physically and mentally, my 80-year-old mother, and I saw the impact the disease had on my family.

        My mother, who is in the mid-to-late stage of Alzheimer’s was largely unaware of recent events or even to who I was.

         There was no recognition of my brother or sisters, and many times she did not even recognize my father, who has been her husband for the past 60 years.

         My mother could not tell time on her watch,was not aware of what day it was or even where she lived.

         Moreover, the staff warned me of my frequent mood swings and that she could get agitated very quickly.

         However, some say “music calms the savage beast.”

         That may be true, and it’s most certainly true for victims of Alzheimer’s disease — soothing music can reduce agitation.  While Alzheimer’s robs a person of their memory or cognitive abilities, a timeless tune can reduce agitation and can have calming positive effects on Alzheimer’s patients, too.  This point was driven home to me following my visit to my mother’s 28-bed Alzheimer’s unit at Dallas-base Marriott Brighton Gardens.

         On Friday afternoons, Carrie A. Johns of Blue Rose Entertainment keeps things hopping in the Alzheimer’s unit’s television room with her music therapy program.

        Popping CDs into a compact disc player, Johns plays a continuous string of popular tunes from the early 1900s to the 1960s.  That day, about 20 songs were played, ranging from golden oldies to country and western and Broadway tuns.

       Johns chooses from 8,000 songs in her CD collection, and she often selects songs during her one-and-a-half-hour program that reflect memorable happy periods in the residents’ lives.

       Johns, who raises Arabian horses on a 12-acre ranch in Mabank, Teaxa, has a client list of more than 500 nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and senior centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex region.

       Swaying, Johns sings the Andrews Sisters’ 1942 hit “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company C” into her microphone, residents Rose Grimes, Helen Webb and Francis  Donathan dance up a storm with Ashina Jackson, a personal care assistant, big smiles lighting up all of their faces.

       “It is a joy to make these residents happy when their families are not here,” Jackson tells me.  “I like to see their expressions when they remember the tunes. It’s like I’m going back to their time.”

         To the beat of the 1920s tune “in’t She Sweet,” Activity Director Dave Mandt dances with my mother.

         She belts out the song remembering all the words, not even missing a beat.

          Jane Atobajeun, special care manager, says music helps to calm the residents down.  While residents with Alzheimer’s disease don’t remember recent events — what they ate for lunch, for instance — they will remember songs that were once popular in distant eras, since they can retain long-term memory.

       “Music makes them laugh,” adds Atobajeun, noting that it “touches their very being and also triggers me memories and emotions.”

       According to Atobajeun, throughout the day residents can get frustrated if they can’t remember things.

       But singing makes them very happy because they remember the words.  Dancing can also get the residents up and moving, she adds, noting that even wheelchair-bound residents are assisted to stand and move.

       Throughout the program my father and I traded off dancing with my mother.  Several times, my smiling mother goes up to the microphone, and dances with Johns.

       You guessed it — she automatically knows every word of the song.  When the music ends, I say goodbye to my mother.

       knowing the challenges she faces with Alzheimer’s, I at least know that there is a brief period of pleasure in her life — at least twice a week when she attends the Alzheimer’s unit’s music program.

        Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based freelance writer covering aging, health care and medical issues.  This article was published in the August 19, 2002 Pawtucket Times.

The Best of…Call the Samaritans for a Shoulder to Lean On

Published on December 24, 2001, Pawtucket Times

             Chestnuts roasting on the fire.  Green wreaths with red ribbons. Soothing Christmas music coming from speakers in shopping malls.  Houses decorated with long strands of brightly colored lights.  Decorated evergreen trees.

            Got the Christmas spirit?  Many do, but many don’t, especially if they are seniors.

           With Christmas tomorrow, not everyone is feeling the holiday spirit.  The  holidays may be a very difficult time for seniors, particularly the elderly who have lost spouses and friends, have painful chronic illnesses or feel isolated or powerless, says Cynthia Barry, M.S.W, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island.  At this time “some may feel depressed and even suicidal.”

            Even drinking during the holidays can put seniors at a higher risk of experiencing depression and thinking about suicide, Barry adds.

            Even drinking during the holidays can put seniors at a higher risk of experiencing depression and thinking about suicide, Barry adds.

            But the stigma of mental illness will keep older persons from seeking out needed treatment for their depression or suicidal thoughts, Barry says.  Those who feel that they have a problem with depression should visit their local mental health care, neighborhood health canter, the family physician or even private practitioners re commended by their health plan, she says.

            Carolyn Pellegrino, deputy director of Self Help, Inc., a nonprofit community action agency in the East Bay that provides senior case management to all upper East Bay communities and both Pawtucket and Central Falls, , notes that 60 percent of her older clients usually involve  persons who just worry to those experiencing severe clinical depression.

           “There’s a lot of depression out there,” Pellegrino says, adding that today’s seniors, who grew up in a different era, were told not to dal with their feelings of depression, “just get on with your life.”

          Although depression, like heart diseased, is an illness, seniors will get treated for their heart disease, but not their depression, Pellegrino says.  Oftentimes, a combination of medication and therapy can do wonders about a person’s depression, she states.

          A newly released Public Service Announcement (PSA) tells seniors to seek out another resource to fight the holiday blues.  Last week, WHJJ and B101 played a PSA featuring well-know songwriter Bill Withers who, after singing a few lines of his popular song, “Lean on Me,” urges his radio listeners “feeling low with nowhere to turn to contact The Samaritans.”

        Directed to the lonely, the depressed and suicidal, the PSA is intended to raise the awareness of the existence of The Samaritans of Rhode Island, a nonprofit program dedicated to reducing the  occurrence of suicide by reaching out to the despairing and lonely.

          Denise Panichas, serving as The Samaritans’ interim executive director states the communication-based program, established in Providence in 1979, teaches volunteers to effectively listen to people who are in crisis.  Conversations are free, confidential, most important anonymous.

         A rigorous training program teachers volunteers to feel and think without expressing personal judgements or opinions, Panichas says, noting that the listening technique, called “befriending,” calls for 90 percent listening and 10 percent talking.

          Last year, more than 20,o00 Rhode Islanders called The Samaritans, Panichas said.  The Samaritans, Panichas said.  “It doesn’t matter what the problem is, be it depression, suicidal thoughts, seeking resources for mental health services in the community or being  lonely and just needing to talk,” she said.

          Panichas notes that The Samaritans also offers other needed resources to caregivers and older Rhode Islanders. “We do community education programs and also have our peer-to-peer Safe Place Support Group for those left behind by suicide.

          For seniors who are looking for something to do with their time, the art of “befriending” is something that anybody can do.  Becoming a compassionate listener to someone in need.

         Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-freelance writer who covers health care, aging and medical issues.  He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.