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In two Texas counties along the border with Mexico, 20 to 25 percent of seniors have Alzheimer's or related dementias. Those rates are among the highest in the US and represent a mostly Latino population. But Latinos are underrepresented in Alzheimer's clinical trials. Physician and neurologist Dr. Gladys Maestre is changing that at her NIH-funded Alzheimer's research center in the Rio Grande Valley, the first of its kind in Texas. She's using a "place-based" approach to dementia care, bringing her Latina identity and cultural knowledge to investigate the social, environmental, and biological factors that influence brain health.

“Memory is my tool and my raw material,” author Gabriel García Márquez once said to his son. “I cannot work without it.” As the great writer’s memory began to fail him late in life, his family circled around. Rodrigo García relays those days of caring and loss in his poignant memoir of his parents’ final years, “A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes.”

Arlieta Hall was a full-time caregiver for her dad with dementia when she started going to open-mic nights around Chicago for some relief. Then one night a manager suggested that she tell stories about her dad on stage. Now, Arlieta is making her name as a comedian and dementia educator. She’s a fellow at Chicago’s famed Second City comedy club, finishing a film about care and comedy, and trains families and caregivers to use the tools of improv to communicate better with people with dementia.

Cynthia Huling Hummel was 49 years old when she noticed the first symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease. Today, she is an author and artist whose work explores the experience of living with Alzheimer's, and she volunteers her time for medical research into the disease. On this episode of Twenty-Four Seven: A Podcast About Caregiving, Cynthia shares her insights into the care she hopes to receive and her advice for others with Alzheimer's Disease.

The guest on this episode is Ai-Jen Poo, an activist and lobbyist who has sought better pay for caregivers and greater access to in-home care for people who need it. Many of us who care for an aging parent rely on the help of a paid caregiver, someone to fill in when we're not available or just need a few hours off. Those professional home care aides take on demanding, intimate work that allows elderly people to stay at home rather than move into a nursing home, and yet on average, they make just $11 an hour. Ai-Jen tells Kitty how her grandmother and grandfather inspired her work, and the policy changes she thinks the United States needs to fix its elder care system.

Understanding a little about the biology of dementia can demystify it, and Teepa Snow is an occupational therapist and educator who has made it her mission to do just that. Dementia is not a single disease, but more of an umbrella term for cognitive changes that can affect a person as they age. We commonly think of it as memory loss, but dementia can take many other shapes as well, affecting the mind and the body in ways that can seem bizarre and inexplicable to a caregiver.

Jacquelyn Revere was just 29 when she started caring for her mom with Alzheimer’s. She built an audience of more than half a million followers when she started posting about it on TikTok. She talks with Kitty about what it’s like to become a parent to her parent at a very young age, and how an ounce of humor goes a long way.

Kitty talks with Patti Davis, author of Floating in the Deep End: How Caregivers Can See Beyond Alzheimer's. Patti began taking care of her father, former president Ronald Reagan, when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after leaving office; she later ran support groups for family caregivers. She tells Kitty about the difficult lessons she learned while caring for a person with Alzheimer's and the spiritual groundings that carried her through it.

We have new episodes coming in January, 2022, as Kitty expands from her personal story caring for her dad, to the experiences of many families. Guests this season include author Patti Davis, about caring for her father Ronald Reagan; MacArthur "genius grant" winner Ai-Jen Poo, and caregiver Jacquelyn Joyce Revere, who streams her lessons about caring for her mom on TikTok and YouTube. We also want to hear about your experience taking care of aging relatives. Get in touch with us at 247@tpr.org, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Kitty asks her dad what he thinks about death and the afterlife, then turns to a hospice chaplain who has discussions like that for a living.