Alzheimer’s Awareness Month kicks off

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With the new year fresh out of pocket, and many people just having seen their relatives, January is being noted as Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

Barb Fergusen, executive director with Alzheimer’s Calgary, explained the importance of Alzheimer’s awareness, and why the occasion is taking place so soon after the turn of the year. 

“It is a national month, and it is just to raise awareness about this really critical condition. It happens every year in January … often family members start to notice signs when they are together over the holidays,” she said. “It is a really critical time and it is really important to have it in January because we get a lot of calls (this month). People have been together over the holidays and are starting to maybe notice some changes in their family members so there are lots of questions coming forward this month.”

She explained Alzheimer’s Calgary does a lot of outreach events and campaigning through education sessions. The public engagement session this month is an event being hosted Jan. 27, called Talking About Dementia, which presents an opportunity for those who are curious to come out and speak with an expert in the field. 

“We do a lot of online programming and educations, and I also really encourage people who have questions to call our dementia support navigators,” said Fergusen. “Strathmore is definitely a very important part of our service area and we are here to serve. Our dementia support navigators are registered social workers; they help people really with emotional support, connecting to other community resources and answering questions.”

Fergusen added some people are simply curious about Alzheimer’s and want to learn more, while others are seeing different signs of the disease and are hoping to learn about what to do for their loved ones. 

Some signs to look for include disruptive memory loss, poor judgement, loss of spontaneity and sense of initiative, losing track of dates or current location, taking longer than usual to complete regular tasks, and repeating questions or forgetting recently learned information.

“It is so much more than just memory. It is really when you start to notice changes in a person’s ability to perform once familiar tasks,” said Fergusen. “Maybe everyday they would make coffee and they have become a little bit more confused about what that process looks like.”

Resources for those who are curious about Alzheimer’s are available through the Alzheimer’s Calgary website, and online (stillme.ca).