News
Erik Lande
Exciting News! A New Book And The 2nd Edition ...
Exciting News! A New Book And The 2nd Edition of Our First Book
Education, News
Marina Wischnack
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Brain

Our social and scientific communities alike have been drastically uprooted since the novel coronavirus impacted the world last December. This article tackles questions regarding COIVD’s effects on the brain, cognition (thinking clarity), and general life functioning related to contracting the coronavirus, as well as discussing the road to recovery (read time: 10 mins)

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Brain
Education, News
Robert Duff
COVID-19 Scams and Seniors
Education
Erik Lande
Can a Neuropsychological Assessment Help?
Can a Neuropsychological Assessment Help?

2022

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Thank you to the Parkinson's Association of Santa Barbara!

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Thank you to the Parkinson's Association of Santa Barbara for Having Me Present Last Week on How Parkinson's Affects Cognition

It was a pleasure to provide a zoom lecture for the Santa Barbara Parkinson’s Association last week. The Parkinson’s Association of Santa Barbara (PASB) was founded in 1978 and was the first Parkinson’s group in California. They provide information monthly meetings on topics related to Parkinson’s and also offer symposia for medical providers, making them a wonderful resource for the Santa Barbara community.

I spoke for about an hour on the topic of Parkinson’s disease. However, although we usually focus on the movement difficulties associated with Parkinson’s, in this talk the focus was on the thinking difficulties that can accompany this illness, including what about Parkinson’s causes problems with memory and concentration, but more importantly what steps we can take to protect our brains as we age.

INTERESTED IN WATCHING THE TALK?

It is available for free on our online classes site, insightneuropsych.teachable.com. The site will require you to register, but the class is free. While you are there, feel free to check out the other classes we offer on the aging brain and caregiving.

The video class is broken up into 5 digestible video chunks, including:

  • Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: Causes and Prevalence

  • Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: How It Presents

  • Dementia in Parkinson’s Disease

  • How to Age Well

Know the Risk Factors of Dementia?

It can be difficult to know when something is wrong. There are normal changes associated with aging, and many other issues can masquerade as dementia. For this reason, I created a book on how to understand the aging brain, recognize signs of dementia, and how to understand the treatment, work effectively with doctors, and remain an effective caregiver. My book is now in its second edition, and I have added a workbook to help families.

Everyone deserves to understand their brain, how it ages, and is it healthy. Our books provide a roadmap to help you determine if you should be concerned and how you can help yourself and your loved ones. This includes learning about the types of dementia, conditions that can be mistaken for dementia, how to interact with doctors, and what treatments and care is out here.

Our new workbook helps to provide worksheets and tools to support you and your loved one with that the stresses that can arise with dementia, be it due to Alzheimer’s disease, vascular disease or Lewy body disease.

In particular, “A Roadmap for Dementia“ provides tools to help:

  • Create a memory book to support your loved one and assist caregivers

  •  Develop a strategy to understand behaviors seen in dementia

  •  Learn to cope with agitation and psychosis

  •  and for communicating effectively with your loved ones with dementia

Perhaps you are more of a watcher than a reader

We have also created a series of online video classes focused on understanding the brain and dementia, caregiving strategies, how to keep our brains strong, and even a video course on how to make the holidays a little easier for your loved one with dementia.

CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO CHECK OUT OUR COURSES

Want to talk about these issues in person? Please feel free to reach out to us.

 

Interested in booking a talk or training for your group?

click below

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Thank you to the California Association of PA/PG/PCs!

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Thank you to the California State Assoc of Public Administrators, Public Guardians and Public Conservators for having me speak at your convention this week!

I really had the opportunity to learn a lot about the work of the Public Guardian’s office and how best to support them over these last few days here in Palm Springs. I also had the opportunity to hear experts in their field discuss topics such as suicide prevention and crisis intervention, as presented by Sergeant Kevin Briggs, known as the guardian of the Golden Gate for his work preventing suicides while in the California Highway Patrol, and Dr. LaVonna Lewis from USC, who helped us explore awareness of our own bias and its effects on our interactions with others.

My presentations at the conference included

Excessive Persuasion: From Undue Influence to Scam Victimization

and

Interviewing the Cognitively Impaired

Know the Risk Factors That Make Older Adults Susceptible to Financial Abuse?

It can be difficult to know when something is wrong. Much financial abuse occurs in secret. In many cases the bad actors themselves train their victims not to tell anyone about what is going on. There are signs that you can watch for and things you can do to protect your loved ones though. The issues related to older adults falling victim to scams or undue influence are so significant that when I created the second edition of my book, I added a whole chapter on the topic.

Have You Heard of Undue Influence?

Another type of financial exploitation to mention is somewhat harder to detect. It is the concept of undue influence, which people with dementia can be particularly vulnerable to due to their cognitive impairment. Undue influence is often used to manipulate an older adult into changing estate plans or giving large gifts to the influencer, even when it is not in the older adult’s best interest. Whereas scams use advertising techniques, undue influence uses the development of a strong relationship. Essentially the bad actor develops a special and trusted relationship with the older adult. This is sometimes seen with caregivers, where a caregiver who was hired to care for an older adult with dementia develops a strong bond with the person and then purposely starts to manipulate the older adult with dementia. Often the issue does not become obvious until some financial cost has occurred, or family or friends begin to recognize the influence that the bad actor has developed.

  Besides cognitive impairment, risk factors for undue influence include dependence and isolation. The victim may become dependent on the bad actor for things like food, transportation, and even financial management. Isolation contributes as the victim feels that they have no one else to turn to and so instead they focus on the bad actor. The bad actor will themselves usually encourage isolation and dependency.

Resources to Report Scams and Fraud

 National Elder Fraud Hotline

Provides case managers for support and resources

1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311)

www.justice.gov/stopelderfraud

 

Federal Trade Commission

Helps government identify victims and track these crimes

www.FTC.gov

 

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center

Helps government identify victims and track these crimes

www.IC3.gov

Everyone deserves to understand their brain, how it ages, and is it healthy. Our books provide a roadmap to help you determine if you should be concerned and how you can help yourself and your loved ones. This includes learning about the types of dementia, conditions that can be mistaken for dementia, how to interact with doctors, and what treatments and care is out here.

Our new workbook helps to provide worksheets and tools to support you and your loved one with that the stresses that can arise with dementia, be it due to Alzheimer’s disease, vascular disease or Lewy body disease.

In particular, “A Roadmap for Dementia“ provides tools to help:

  • Create a memory book to support your loved one and assist caregivers

  •  Develop a strategy to understand behaviors seen in dementia

  •  Learn to cope with agitation and psychosis

  •  and for communicating effectively with your loved ones with dementia

Perhaps you are more of a watcher than a reader

We have also created a series of online video classes focused on understanding the brain and dementia, caregiving strategies, how to keep our brains strong, and even a video course on how to make the holidays a little easier for your loved one with dementia.

CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO CHECK OUT OUR COURSES

Want to talk about these issues in person? Please feel free to reach out to us.

 

Interested in booking a talk or training for your group?

click below