Journal of the Plague Year for Alzheimer's Disease

(With apologies to Daniel Defoe... )

Covid-19 isn't the Black Death, but it's pretty deadly.  No one reading this is unaffected, and some may be losing friends or loved ones.  I have one friend in a senior living facility who has been diagnosed with covid-19 and has been given a respirator.  He lost his wife to other causes only a few weeks ago.  The virus is active in several senior living facilities here locally with a number of deaths.

It has been, of course, disruptive to care for persons with dementia, whether in a memory care facility or at home.  There are reports that non-family caregivers are cutting back on the time they spend caring for elderly people, both for the sake of the caregiver and the sake of vulnerable older people.  The memory care facilities cut back and then stopped allowing visitors some time ago, so I have stopped making visits.

The Alzheimer's Association has advice for ways to support caregivers.

Social services have also been disrupted, especially volunteer based services.  Most volunteers are more vulnerable older people.  The food bank where I volunteer has shut down but will now be staffed by members of the National Guard.

Alzheimer's disease research has also been impacted, notably drug trials.  This certainly affects medical trials in general, because test subjects aren't able come in for testing.  Research around the world has been shut down due to the need for social distancing among researchers.

Let us all hope for rapid advances in medical science to quickly end this plague.  But let's also hope that the challenges strengthen the bonds of love between us and others, social distancing not withstanding.

Stay safe.