Dick Tansey said it was difficult on the days when his wife came home in tears after visiting a friend with dementia.
The couple met their mutual friend many years ago when Tansey was still in business. His wife liked the other woman immediately and took her under her wing.
When the dementia hit, they began not only being friends but also caretakers. But the aggression and agitation they experienced from the once independent woman often left the couple feeling uncertain on how to cope with the disease.
“We were so terribly frustrated on how to deal with it,” he said.
On Friday, the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and the Northwest Territories announced the launch of First Link – a program where health-care professionals directly refer people diagnosed with dementia to the society.
Bill Gaudette, CEO of the Alzheimer Society for Alberta and NWT, said they are looking to partner with doctors and health-care professionals across the province to combine their expertise with the support system the society provides to families.
“We have family members who contact us and who come in and we meet with the family and the person,” he said.
“Unfortunately that comes later rather than sooner and our feeling is that the sooner we can be involved the easier the process becomes.”
Tansey is the past chair of the local chapter of Seniors United Now in St. Albert, and still serves as vice president and chair of the advocacy group on the provincial board. He’s been volunteering with seniors in the community for four years and has met many people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
He said family members and friends often notice the disease long before the person does.
Their friend “was having little parking lot accidents and she was telling us about those and how she was afraid to report them. That was a sign of the symptom.
“Her driving was becoming very defective and she did not remember where she was. She’d stop in the middle of the road and ask people where she was.”
Gaudette said many people know little about dementia, what it means to live with it and what the progression of the disease will be. The road from first recognition to a final diagnosis is often long and painful – and not only for the patient.
Many families and friends rely on the aid of doctors but don’t receive much advice on how to cope with the change in their lives. Tansey said he knew about the Alzheimer Society but never considered asking them for advice.
“You don’t use them right away. You depend on the medical community to guide you and assess what is necessary,” he said.
“We could have used information . . . on how we should be responding to what we were experiencing, how to adjust our thinking and actions.”
In March, the provincial government provided the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories with a grant of $2.76 million. The funding will also be used to develop alternative delivery services and programs to rural and remote communities.
