Practical information for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease

Newswise — Dr. Martha Sparks, an associate professor at the University of Southern Indiana (USI), will share her perspective of Alzheimer’s disease with students in two courses developed for 2006 spring semester. The first is an online Alzheimer’s certification course, a course she believes is one of a few such courses offered online. It is for people practicing in the field. Participants will be certified to deal with Alzheimer’s, and they will be able to educate fellow employees in nursing home or assisted living facilities.

The second course, a three-hour undergraduate online course, deals with assessing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, knowing what to expect from the disease, and managing and knowing how to deal with the disease’s symptoms.

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Martha Sparks’ mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1993, her husband was diagnosed with the same disease; seven years later, her father – who also suffered from Alzheimer’s – came to live with her, putting her in a position to care for two Alzheimer’s patients at the same time.

“Living with two people with Alzheimer’s is a good reason to keep learning about the disease,” Sparks said. “It gives you a new perspective.”

“I want to help give a feeling of the illness, and not just cognitive information about it,” Dr. Sparks said. “If we can understand what to expect, and know why we see the behavior, then our emotions don’t get quite so involved, and we can use a more practical approach to caring for the patient.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a subject Dr. Sparks knows plenty about. Apart from her personal experiences, Dr. Sparks has been doing workshops on Alzheimer’s since 1991, and developed a gerontology program at USI in 1999.

She gave a presentation about the perceptions of caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease at the Oxford Round Table for Successful Aging in August 2005. The Oxford Round Table is held at St. Anne’s College in the University of Oxford, England. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Texas.

Dr. Sparks developed the course with an $18,000 grant from the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education. The grant program supports development of educational content delivered via technology.