- With Mayo Clinic health education outreach coordinator
Angela Lunde
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Angela Lunde
Angela Lunde is a dementia education specialist in the education core of Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer's Disease Research Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Angela Lunde
The transfer of information about dementias, as well as understanding the need for participation in clinical trials, is an essential component of the education core.
Angela is a member of the Alzheimer's Association board of directors and co-chair of the annual Minnesota Dementia Conference. She is a member of the Dementia Behavior Assessment and Response Team (D-BART), a multidisciplinary outreach service assisting professional and family caregivers in understanding and managing difficult behaviors often present in dementia. She facilitates several support groups, including Memory Club, an early-stage education and support series, and more recently, helped to develop and now deliver Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking (HABIT), a 10-day cognitive rehab and wellness program for people with mild cognitive impairment.
Angela takes a personal interest in understanding the complex changes that take place within relationships and among families when dementia is present. She is particularly interested in providing innovative and accessible ways for people with dementia and their families to receive information and participate in valuable programs that promote well-being.
"Amid a devastating disease, there are tools, therapies, programs and ways to cope, and it is vital that families are connected to these resources," she says.
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Alzheimer's blog
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Feb. 16, 2008
Sharing the pain of early-onset Alzheimer's
By Angela Lunde
The responses from my last posting makes it clear that young onset AD is painful beyond belief and there are as many experiences in living with the disease as there are persons diagnosed.
My purpose was not to minimize the depth of the despair you are going through. I have heard from some patients with young onset AD that despite the devastating shock, numbness, and overwhelming sadness of the diagnosis, there was some relief in knowing they were not 'lazy' or 'crazy' and that their symptoms are due to a real neurological problem.
I heard a gentleman diagnosed with young onset AD speak at a conference last year. His words were powerful. He said, "Please do not mourn the fact I am not who I was, or you want me to be, or we both miss this moment when we focus on yesterday or last year or twenty years ago. We miss living together today, we miss the chance to love, and to laugh, and to be all we can be today, when we are mourning who I was."
I invite you to see some men and women with young onset AD speak openly about their experiences on a Web-cast from our "Meeting of the Minds" conference that took place in 2007. You can find the link below.
More than anything, I am humbled by your words and I am grateful for your candid sharing.
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