Activities May Ease Alzheimer’s Disease (Part 1)

  • This garden at the Family Life Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is designed specifically to help Alzheimer's patients.

About 19 million Americans have a family member with
Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a diagnosis that can send a family reeling.
For
patients, even simple tasks become increasingly difficult, as the
disease
robs them of their memory. And for families, caring for an Alzheimer’s
patient often becomes a fulltime job. In the first of a two-part
series, the
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports new approaches
in Alzheimer’s treatment are offering hope to both patients and their
families:

Alzheimer’s Patients Take Up Gardening (Part 2)

  • Family Life Center founder, Cynthia Longchamps (right), and program participant JoAnn Scott. Longchamps says the sound of this waterfall helps soothe Alzheimer's patients, and its location encourages them to walk farther into the garden.

People have often turned to nature to rejuvenate their spirit –
whether they take a hike in the woods, or just look out the window. Now
there’s a type of therapy that taps into these powers of nature. In the
second of a two-part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy
Nelson visits a "healing garden":