Last month, the Alliance for Aging Research released a series of films featuring conversations with a clinician, family caregivers, and patient advocates about the neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) that accompany Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Symptoms of NPS include anxiety, depression, agitation, apathy, socially inappropriate behavior, psychosis aggression, sleep disturbances, and more, commonly afflict people living with Alzheimer’s disease. Symptoms can be challenging and often lead to social isolation due to stigma, but the reality is that NPS often require medical attention and are as much a product of Alzheimer’s disease as changes to memory and cognition. Because they are rarely talked about, the films aimed to shake the stigma and encourage those affected to create a care plan and get the support they deserve.
The popular films, “Expert Conversations of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Alzheimer’s” featured excerpts of conversations with:
- Carolyn Clevenger, DNP, RN who is a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner and Director of the Integrated Memory Care Clinic at Emory University. In her video, she shares more details on NPS as well as how she regularly talks with families living with Alzheimer’s about NPS.
- Carrie Shaw, CEO and Founder of Embodied Labs who cared for her mother who was living with Alzheimer’s disease which inspired her to create a company dedicated to using technology to help people see the world through the eyes of the people they care for.
The Alliance is now releasing additional content from the full interviews in chaptered videos. Watch the videos for Carrie Shaw and Carolyn Clevenger to learn more.
