Giving good moments

Open mic comedy nights, trips to museums, drama classes. Most people don't associate these activities with people who have Alzheimer's and related disorders.

But such pursuits are among the best ways to prevent Alzheimer's patients from becoming agitated, a nationally recognized researcher said Wednesday in Charleston.

"You have to change the belief that there's nothing you can do but keep them comfortable — that they can't learn," Cameron Camp, an author from Ohio and director of research for Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, told about 200 caregivers.

Speaking at the Alzheimer's

Association South Carolina Chapter annual conference at the Elks Lodge on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, Camp said caregivers must recognize that people with severe Alzheimer's can still learn new things.

Once this hurdle in perception is cleared, they can guide patients to activities that keep their minds engaged. This, in turn, reduces agitation and other bad behaviors, he said.

Camp's comments come amid what some South Carolina leaders are calling the "gray plague," a rapid rise in the number of Alzheimer's cases.

In 2000, 67,000 South Carolinians had Alzheimer's and related disorders. Next year, that number is expected to reach 80,000, enough to pack Columbia's Williams-Brice Stadium.

This increase is creating enormous challenges, particularly for families of Alzheimer's patients. A state task force report recently estimated that about 160,000 family caregivers in South Carolina provide the equivalent of $1.4 billion in unpaid care every year.

Caregivers at home and in nursing centers often are placed in stressful situations; as the disease destroys brain cells, patients sometimes lose their ability to control themselves. Some become violent. A recent Post and Courier report revealed that South Carolina has few options for families who have loved ones with severe behavior problems.

Camp, author of a book that uses Montessori-based activities for dementia patients, said many agitation issues can be resolved if caregivers find creative ways to engage patients.

A nursing home, for instance, could help organize a committee of Alzheimer's residents to do a comedy show. To do this, residents would need to decide which jokes would be appropriate, what kind of food or drinks to serve and create invitations — even figure out a way to clean up. The show keeps the participants stimulated; staff members benefit because they have to address fewer behavior problems from bored patients.

"When staff are greeted and entertained and don't have to clean up, they see these people differently," Camp said.

Doing these kinds of activities often doesn't take more money.

"The cost (for the comedy night) is some paper for invitations and a different way of thinking," he said.

He said nursing home staff sometimes suffer from "learned helplessness" that prevents them from doing creative things, a belief that they're caretakers instead of caregivers. This may extend to physicians who refuse to prescribe a rehabilitation regimen to someone simply because he or she has Alzheimer's.

"They say that people with dementia live in the moment," Camp said. "So it's our job to give them as many good moments in a day as possible."

Reach Tony Bartelme at 937-5554 or tbartelme@postandcourier.com.