For Angela Jefferson, PhD, who heads the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer\u2019s Center (VMAC), Alzheimer\u2019s disease is both an academic and personal passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve dedicated my career to fighting Alzheimer\u2019s disease, to finding effective prevention and therapies, but this fight is also very personal. Both of my grandmothers were affected,\u201d said Jefferson, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2012.<\/p>\n
Her maternal grandmother became symptomatic when Jefferson was 13, and her paternal grandmother started exhibiting memory loss signs when Jefferson was on the faculty at Boston University School of Medicine. Jefferson remembers the first sign of trouble for both grandmothers was linked to gift packages \u2014 one grandmother lost some gifts at a family birthday party and the other mislabeled several Christmas packages.<\/p>\n
She watched as both sides of her family struggled to make decisions for her grandmothers \u2014 taking one\u2019s car away; determining it was no longer safe for another to live alone; one side of the family working through how to care for the grandmother at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the toll it takes on families, especially when family members do not see eye to eye about medical and financial decisions. It creates a lot of stress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jefferson said her father\u2019s family \u201cbent over backwards\u201d to make sure her paternal grandmother could stay at home. Those family members are part of the more than 16 million Americans who provide unpaid care for loved ones with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the initial years, my uncle spent every night with her. He would leave his wife and go next door to his mom\u2019s house, spend the night, then go back home the next morning,\u201d she said. \u201cLater they organized family and friends to pitch in as \u2018granny sitters\u2019 to keep her company and help her with tasks around the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson and her brother have already had a discussion with both their parents. Her father wants to grow old at home. Her mother prefers assisted living if needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people worry about being a burden and have a plan for assisted living. Some people make it very clear they want to stay at home. I think one of the most important things a family can do is talk about what mom or dad wants to do \u2014 to have a plan so there\u2019s no second guessing or doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denial is common among family members who notice cognitive differences in a loved one, so it\u2019s important when there are signs of dementia that the loved one is taken for an evaluation as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
She offers this advice to those newly diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease or other forms of dementia: \u201cTravel. Visit friends and family. Prioritize the things you enjoy now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Angela Jefferson, PhD, who heads the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer\u2019s Center (VMAC), Alzheimer\u2019s disease is both an academic and personal passion. \u201cI\u2019ve dedicated my career to fighting Alzheimer\u2019s disease, to finding effective prevention and therapies, but this fight is also very personal. Both of my grandmothers were affected,\u201d said Jefferson, who joined the Vanderbilt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-related-content","category-vm-spring-2021"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-J3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}