Francine Sawyer and Nancy B. Alexander, MSN, RN, director of care management at Coastal Carolina Health Care, P.M. unknowingly pass each other while doing their Alzheimer’s Virtual Tour Wednesday afternoon. Kristi Mason, an outreach associate of Courtyards, observes the pair as they go about doing "everyday chores".
Chuck Beckley/Sun Journal
Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 18:18 PM.
Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease.
Caregiver managers with Coastal Carolina Health Care and a newspaper reporter experienced the disease first hand Wednesday.
Participants were given goggles to distort vision, earphones providing the sound of muddled voices, some fingers were tied together, gloves were placed on hands and a plastic footpad was placed in shoes to demonstrate the agonizing feeling of neuropathy.
Participants were given tasks such as, fold towels, clear a table of dinnerware, find a belt and pair of pants to put the belt in, match socks and find a tie in three dimly lit rooms.
I only got one task done, matching the socks.
I could not see, I was afraid of falling and I was confused and forgot what the tasks were.
It was a horrifying experience. For just 15 minutes, I experienced a disease that is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
During the tasks we heard a loud blast, it sounded as if a fire engine was at the Courtyards at Berne Village, I was startled, I screamed. The sound was coming from our earphones and it did sound as if the noise was coming from outside.
The experience was called the Virtual Dementia Tour; it demonstrated what the advance stage of Alzheimer’s sounds like, feels like, and having no clear thinking and being very frustrated.
Angelia Pridgen, of Eastern Carolina Council Area Agency on Aging, was an organizer of the virtual tour. “It was set up for you to fail,” she said.
“It is difficult for the caregiver; they don’t know them as the person they used to know. How horrible it must be to get up each day and you cannot remember what you have to accomplish that day. It is sad,” Pridgen said.
The virtual tour was for the manager caregivers at CCHC, so they could experience what their Alzheimer’s patients experience. The tour gives health care professionals a better idea of the suffering of the patient and the challenges.
CCHC is participating in a new care coordination program in Medicare. It is the only such program in Eastern North Carolina.
Nancy B. Alexander, MSN and RN, is the director of care management at CCHC.
She explained the program. It is a group of doctors and health care providers who work together with Medicare to give quality service and care at the right time in the right setting. The program is also known as an Accountable Care Organization.
CCHC has 11,000 Medicare patients. To learn more about the program call CCHC at 252-633-4111.
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