For the past 16 years, Bob Stewart has watched his mother slowly fall into the grasp of Alzheimer’s disease.
Her downward spiral eventually landed her in a long-term care facility, the burden of caring for her at home too much for his father and siblings.
Sadly, he says, they’ve seen little or no progress in fighting the disease, a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behaviour, and tends to strike people in their 80s and beyond – though early onset Alzheimer’s often appears in one’s 40s and 50s.
It hasn’t been easy, he said.
“The journey that we’ve been on with my mom and Alzheimer’s is not a unique one, but it has been a difficult one,” Stewart said Monday, helping the Alzheimer’s Society kick off its annual awareness month.
“My mom has not taken an easy route. There are different things that come up. Alzheimer’s affects the personality of the patient, so you never know what you’re going to end up with.”
Stewart said his mom was a proud woman, who kept her three sons in line while running the household.
“All of a sudden she wasn’t,” he said. “It was a big challenge for her and it was a big challenge for us understanding what she was going through and being able to support her in that.
“When she got into long-term care, that was a difficult process, but there were lots of great people there to help us as a family and help my support her through this,” Stewart said.
Nearly two decades after her diagnosis, she has her good days and her bad days.
“She’s still with us, but she’s definitely not the same person she used to be. But every once in a while you go to visit Mom and she pops out. It’s a great visit when you see that.”
The numbers aren’t improving. In fact, they’re getting worse.
One in three Canadians will be affected by dementia, and by 2040 its expected the disease will cost the country $293 billion annually in lost production as people have to take time off work to care for elderly friends and relatives.
In Northwestern Ontario there are at least 3,800 people living with dementia, 2,300 of those in Thunder Bay.
Laraine Tapak, president of the Alzheimer’s Society of Thunder Bay’s board of directors, said creating awareness of the disease is imperative.
“People refer to it as the grey tsunami. There are not enough resources to help the number of people who are either going to be getting this disease or families that are caring for them. So the more people who know about it, perhaps the more funding we can get and the more help we can get people,” said Tapak, whose father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the mid-1980s.
On Jan. 31 at the local Chapters store, the organization plans a full day of activities and workshops to help spread the word.
There will be scavenger hunts and brain games, helmet fittings for kids and plenty of information about dementia on hand for those who might have questions.
“So it’ll be a fun day and I don’t think anybody would have a chance to be bored.”
