Though this may not be the place for this topic, I feel the need to help spread awareness in every way I can. I know many of you might know of someone that has or had Alzheimers/Dementia or has been affected by this in some way or another. There are also many people that may not like speaking about it and/or might feel shame.
I am not ashame to say the my mother had Alzheimer's and I was one of her caregivers. The experience I went through taught me alot about myself, questions I had were answers, I learned many things during my time with her, and now I want to help others in learning how to deal with a loved one that may have Alzheimer's.

HBO is showing a 4 part documentary which started last night. Today the 2nd part will be showing at 7:30.

THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT is an ambitious, disturbing, emotionally fraught and carefully optimistic four-part documentary exploring virtually every angle of Alzheimer's disease that can be explored on television. Interviewed and filmed by the same team that produced HBO's “Addiction” project, patients and their families, scientists and doctors, caregivers and advocates are all given an opportunity to speak, often with heartbreaking details of their lives and the impact Alzheimer's has had on them.

That this will resonate with millions of viewers is indisputable -- as many as 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and as the baby boomers age, some predict that number could more than double. That much of the documentary is difficult to watch is equally so, particularly the first part, which debuts on Sunday.

In "The Memory Loss Tapes," we meet seven people in various stages of the disease. Though 87-year-old Bessie Knapmiller is becoming increasingly forgetful, she is still feisty and active. Yolanda Santamartino, 75, is in a far darker place. Her closest friend in the resident facility in which she lives is her own reflection -- whom she berates for never coming to visit. Plagued by visions of snakes, surrounded by other similarly beset patients, she declares, in a rare moment of clarity, that "this is no life."

Last edited by TSG on May-11-2009 at 19:37