My day began with meeting both Jed Levine - the director of Programs and Services and Anne Wyatt who works externally for the New York, Alzheimer's Association in Care Facilities, in various parts of the city. It was interesting getting to know this specific chapter in comparison to Chicago's and Minneapolis' (that i saw previously when travelling).
We spoke alot about the transition periods of the disease and how this can affect an individual. But we came to the conclusion that each person is entirely different and to enable the choice of whether they want to carry on in the Early Stage Program even if in the middle stage, (however this has to be approved with the rest of the group).
Jed also mentioned that 40% of time with the disease is spent in late stage Dementia - which i was horrified about!! What a high percentage?? However more Alzheimer organisations are developing Early Stage Programs due to the medicine been developed for mid/late stage. Hoping that their only client group in the next few years will just be early stage...but lets see what happens within our culture.....
