Alzheimer's awareness

June is Alzheimer's awareness month. But for the Waseca Area Caregiver Services (WACS), Alzheimer's awareness is more than just a month. 

Waseca Area Caregiver Services provides programs to support Alzheimer’s patients and those family members and others who look after them.  

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, the slow decline in memory, and is a fatal disorder that results in the loss of brain cells and function. 

The 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s are memory loss that disrupts daily life, challenges in planning or solving problems, difficulty completing familiar tasks, confusion with time or place, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, new problems with words in speaking or writing, misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps, decreased or poor judgment, withdrawal from work or social activities, changes in mood and personality.  

Alzheimer’s is a debilitating condition which causes intellectual, emotional and physical turmoil both for those experiencing it and those who care for them.  This is why WACS is working to help take care of the caregiver by offering things such as the caregiver support group or providing programs, including one specific to memory loss. 

Some Time Away is a WACS program “great for the person with mild to moderate memory loss and those who spend most of their time alone. It's social time for them and a chance to have some time away from home,” WACS website reads. Every Monday and Wednesday, participants in Some Time Away engage in “age-appropriate activities” that allow patients to come together and interact socially, intellectually, and physically in numerous ways, including playing games, going for walks, exercising, dancing, listening to music, playing modified sports, and socializing. Coffee and donuts are offered in the morning and lunch provided by Meals on Wheels in the afternoon. 

“They love dancing and singing and balloon volleyball,” said Kelly Boeddeker, executive director at WACS, who said the participants had been doing the chicken dance earlier that morning. “We know the more active they are, the better.” 

Boeddeker has been the executive director at WACS for about ten years, working on building up the programs and getting involved with the community. She says one of her main goals is supporting the caregivers as well as the participants, working with caregivers who “really need that spotlight too.” Boedekker knows that a lot of program participants not only care for their family member or loved one, but have to care for their own families as well. She calls it the “sandwich generation.” While Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease, Boedekker says “it’s also horrible for the caregiver to have to watch that deterioration of family and friends.”