The Alzheimer’s and Dementia Association of the Cayman Islands (ADACI) seeks to raise awareness within the general public, educate carers and be a source of support for people with dementia and their carers and family.

Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas (FAVACA) in association with ADACI is offering a half-day training seminar on Alzheimer’s Disease and Care.  The training is being delivered by Dr. Rosemary Laird, Geriatric Internist and Lecturer at Florida State University and Mr. James Smith, Clinical Director of the Alzheimer’s Project in Tallahassee Florida.

The training will include the following topics:-

Introduction to Alzheimer’s Disease

Understand the terms inherent to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

The basic warning signs of dementia

Learning how to communicate with a person with Alzheimer’s

The training will include a virtual Alzheimer’s Disease hands-on workshop – where attendees will experience what it is like to have Alzheimer’s disease.

The training sessions are being offered from Monday and Thursday, Aug. 26 to 29 in the Hibiscus Conference Room at the George Town Hospital. It is free of cost and is open to Police, Firemen and Paramedics.

For more information, email [email protected] or call 929-0832; or call Dorothy on 924-4170.

See attached Registration Form

Related Story:

Genome-wide survey examines recessive alzheimer disease gene

From Science Codex

Runs of homozygosity (ROHs, regions of the genome where the copies inherited from parents are identical) may contribute to the etiology (origin) of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study by Mahdi Ghani, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues.

Caribbean Hispanics are known to have an elevated risk for AD and tend to have large families with evidence of inbreeding, according to the study background.

A Caribbean Hispanic data set of 547 unrelated cases (48.8 percent with familial AD) and 542 controls collected from a population known to have a three-fold higher risk of AD versus non-Hispanics in the same community was used in the study. The data set consisted of African Hispanic (207 cases and 192 controls) and European Hispanic (329 cases and 326 controls) participants.

In total, 17,137 autosomal regions with ROHs were identified. The mean length of the ROH per person was significantly greater in cases versus controls, and this association was stronger in familial AD. Among the European Hispanics, a consensus region at the EXOC4 locus was significantly associated with AD even after correction for multiple testing. Among the African Hispanic subset, the most significant but nominal association was observed for CTNNA3, a well-known AD gene candidate

“We found that ROHs could significantly contribute to the etiology of AD in a population with noticeable inbreeding,” the study concludes.

Source: The JAMA Network Journals

For more on this story go to:

http://www.sciencecodex.com/genomewide_survey_examines_recessive_alzheimer_disease_gene-118148

See also iNews Cayman story published February 14 2013 “Alzheimer’s Cases Expected to Triple by 2050” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/02/alzheimers-cases-expected-to-triple-by-2050/

AND

The Editor Speaks: Dementia published iNews Cayman August 18 2013 at: http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/08/the-editor-speaks-dementia/

AND

“Sportswriter announces he has killed himself in his last blog” in iNews Cayman published August 18 2013” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/2013/08/sportswriter-announces-he-has-killed-himself-in-his-last-blog/