How Will AI Change Dementia Care?

Also in this issue: getting familiar with your "healthspan," a feel-good reunion, and how one public story of frontotemporal dementia gives an example of family support. Also, a special video feature from our YouTube Channel: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Communication with Someone Who Has Dementia.

Ben Couch
December 10, 2024

AI will radically change the way dementia is treated

Welcome to the latest edition of the Dementia Newsletter! Make sure you’ve subscribed so you receive it every week, and forward it to a friend who might benefit from this unique conversation!

How will AI change everything in dementia care?

We can be sure that AI will bring sweeping changes to health care, including care for those with dementia. In general, we’re seeing that in many fields AI is functioning more as an assistant to our efforts rather than a total replacement for human work. In a field so driven by human need and interaction, it seems like a total care takeover by an army of AI caregivers is still a long way off. However, the influence of AI in this field is already starting to make itself known. For instance, check out the article below about glasses that may be able to give dementia patients support, feedback, and information while they wear them.

Incoming AI products will assist people with dementia in continuing their lives at home longer and more safely, as these glasses hope to do. There will also be products that facilitate care for caregivers so that more of the “busy work” is taken care of and more time can be spent on compassion and direct care.

Will these glasses make it, or go the way of Google Glass? Who can say. But products like this will absolutely be entering the market sooner rather than later. You don’t have to decide whether you want to use them now, but it’s time to start educating yourself a little. Start with the fascinating possibilities in the article below.

AI glasses to help dementia patients aims to launch next year (MSN): “CareYaya’s glasses, using artificial intelligence, give people visual and audio cues to help them recognize the faces of loved ones or caregivers, recover lost objects and remember tasks and appointments.”

Here are a few more promising uses of AI technology:

First photorealistic AI avatar for people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia launched by Lenovo and Innovations in Dementia (Lenovo StoryHub): “Today at Lenovo Tech World, Lenovo in collaboration with Innovations in Dementia, launched Alzheimer’s Intelligence, a photorealistic 3D avatar with custom AI based on the lived experiences of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s.”
The Unexpected Maestro: How AI Is Composing a New Future for Dementia Care (NeurologyLive): “In the labs of tech giants and the garages of scrappy startups, engineers and neuroscientists are teaming up to create what might be the next big breakthrough in dementia care. They're teaching AI to compose therapeutic music tailored to individual patients.”
How AI Can Help Spot Early Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease (UCSF): “UC San Francisco scientists have found a way to predict Alzheimer’s disease up to seven years before symptoms appear by analyzing patient records with machine learning.”

Your Lifespan or Your Healthspan?
Which Should You Be Watching?

We all understand what our life span is, but do you know what your health span is? The concept of “health span,” which applies to all of us as we age, is gaining steam in the medical community and was featured in a New York Times Article this past week.

From the NYT:

Americans, on average, can expect to live to about age 76. But their health will start to decline much earlier than that, around age 64.

Some longevity influencers have gained notoriety by focusing on that first number, claiming that they can radically extend human life with experimental drugs or laborious diet, exercise and supplement protocols. But most experts who study aging are trying to target the second variable: not our life spans, but our “health spans” — the number of years a person lives without serious disease, particularly those related to aging.

Dana G. Smith, New York Times [emphasis mine]

As we consider the risk factors for dementia, “Health Span” is an important concept to consider as we plan for our futures, and help our loved ones plan for theirs.

Why Aging Experts Are Obsessed With ‘Health Span’ (New York Times)
Healthspan is more important than lifespan, so why don’t more people know about it? (Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis)
This article from Forbes also introduces the concept of “Wealth Span”: Life Span, Health Span, Wealth Span: A More Expansive Approach To Retirement Planning (Forbes)
You’ll find easy, actionable things you can do to increase your health span in this article from GQ: Why ‘Health Span’ Is More Important Than Lifespan—and 13 Ways to Maximize Yours (GQ)

A couple feel-good moments

There are a lot of difficult things that caregivers have to face every day, so let’s look at a happy story or two and remember that there might just be some holiday magic out there after all.

Homecoming

It was a case of wandering that seemed like it would turn into a worst case scenario. After three days missing, the community was deeply worried over the fate of Wyoming resident Michael Black, 91, who had been diagnosed with dementia.

Click on the link below to see a string of coincidences almost too amazing to be believed. You won’t believe how Michael returned to his home after an adventure to Salt Lake City, a journey of over 200 miles!

Couple reunited after wife spots missing husband on KSL News segment (KSL, TV5)

Celebrity, humanity, and family

For those who follow movie stars and celebrities, you will probably know that actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in the last couple of years.

This past week, Willis’ former wife Demi Moore gave an update on his condition that shows a textbook case of how a family can come together to support their loved one with dementia. Despite their marriage ending in 2000, Moore has stayed close to Willis through the relationship with their children, and she describes how the whole family has worked together to face these difficulties and support Willis as a team.

Demi Moore Gives Health Update on Ex-Husband Bruce Willis' 'Very Difficult' Dementia Battle (Newsweek): “Moore told Amanpour that the situation her family is now navigating is ‘not what I would wish upon anyone’ and has caused ‘great loss.’ Still, she added, "there is also great beauty and gifts that can come out of it.’”

3 Tips for Improving Communication

Do you wonder how you can improve communication with someone who has dementia? Sometimes it can seem almost impossible to bridge the gap in understanding, but there are some methods that will help! Check out the video below from elumenEd for more tips and ideas.

Until next time…

You can find lots more resources from elumenEd and The Dementia Newsletter at these sources:

And read back issues of the Dementia Newsletter here!

Stay informed, everyone, and we’ll see you next week.

_{At The Dementia Newsletter, we’re dementia professionals but we’re not medical doctors. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical diagnosis, treatment, or any health-related concerns.}