Terra Uhing remembers the phone call.
Her mother-in-law’s neighbors said she had run to their home, saying there was a weird man in her house.
The neighbors investigated and found a man in the house, but he was no stranger.
He was Uhing’s father-in-law — who her mother-in-law didn’t recognize due to the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Uhing is executive director of the Three Rivers Health Department and part of the Fremont Area Alzheimer’s Collaboration. This month, the collaboration is hosting the Alzheimer’s Education Event.
The public is invited to the free, community education event from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 9. It will take place in Delaney Hall, St. Patrick Catholic Church, 3400 E. 16th St., Fremont.
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This event will feature renowned speakers, health professionals and researchers with years of experience working with people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The event is occurring in conjunction with the Fremont Area Big Give, a 24-hour day of giving. The local Alzheimer’s collaboration is among nonprofits working to raise funds and awareness through that endeavor.
Erin Bonitto, a nationally known dementia educator, is the keynote speaker for the Alzheimer’s event. Bonitto is founder and lead coach of Gemini Consulting, Life Enrichment Systems for Dementia, in Cold Springs, Minnesota.
The Alzheimer’s event will include three sessions, including:
8:30-11:30 a.m. — A session for aging services professionals.
- Caregivers also are invited to this session, which will focus on the importance of using non-pharmaceutical ways of managing and preventing challenging behavioral situations. Topics include dementia communication, strategies, individualized programming and recognizing and minimizing triggers.
Noon to 12:45 p.m. — Lunch and Learn Session.
- A no-cost lunch will be provided for this session, which features a panel discussion with medical professionals and Alzheimer’s researchers. Attendees will be able to ask questions. Panel members are: Melissa Heavican, service executive, and Rachael Nielsen, adult/geriatric nurse practitioner, both of Methodist Fremont Health; Sharon Stephens, executive director of the Nebraska Alzheimer’s Association; and Nicholas Miller and Haley Kampschneider with the Department of Neurological Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
1-4 p.m. — Session for Family and Community Caregivers.
- The session is called “I Already Told You … Don’t You Remember?” This session is designed to help family members and friends know what they can say and do when interacting with someone who has dementia.
Uhing said she is excited Bonitto is speaking at the event.
Bonitto has given presentations at almost 500 aging services and dementia care conferences. She is a gerontologist, who provides hands-on dementia communication coaching at skilled care, assisted living centers and memory care providers across the nation.
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association lists it as the sixth leading cause of death in Nebraska.
Due to the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, officials with the local collaboration want community members to know the facts and be provided with the tools necessary to help individuals, families and caregivers affected by the disease — and to know there is a support system.
“This is something that’s very near and dear to my heart,” Uhing said. “I think it’s important for folks to understand that there are so many people living with this — who are struggling with this every day — and if we can bring awareness and help bring people together, I think we’ve done our job.”
Uhing and many like her know how Alzheimer’s disease can affect an individual and their family. She describes the time before her mother-in-law began having the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
“She was one of the hardest workers I’d ever met — genuine, kind, loving, soft-spoken,” Uhing said. “Her family meant everything to her. She was a farm wife so she had a work ethic that you wouldn’t even begin to imagine and had worked in a bank for 25 years and raised her kids.”
Uhing remembers when she and her husband married and had their first child — long before her mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s. Uhing was in college when her mother-in-law would watch her granddaughter one weekend and Uhing’s parents watched the child the next weekend.
“If it wasn’t for her and my folks, I never would have gotten to finish college,” Uhing said.
Uhing considered the time commitment before she took the job as Three Rivers’ executive director. Her parents and in-laws were among her biggest supporters, helping in any way possible.
Years later, Uhing saw some of the effects Alzheimer’s disease had on her in-laws.
That included the neighbor’s call about her mother-in-law not recognizing her husband.
Uhing went to their home after the phone call.
“My father-in-law is sitting there in the recliner, looking straight ahead, just devastated,” Uhing said.
Her mother-in-law, who by then recognized her husband, didn’t realize what happened and couldn’t understand why he was so upset.
Uhing tried to tell her father-in-law that it would be OK.
“He then started to cry,” she said.
Uhing recalls what occurred next.
“We got everybody calmed down,” she said, adding that they all went for a car ride that evening.
Uhing said she and family members continued with their activities, but used a little more caution when taking her mother-in-law along.
“If there was a ballgame, she went to it,” Uhing said. “If we needed to go get groceries, she went with me. … It’s part of everyday life and she loved getting out and about.”
Uhing believes an educational event is important — to help the public realize how common Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are — and how people can best care for their loved ones.
“To give back — to the people who once cared for us — it’s an honor and a privilege to be able to help care for them,” Uhing said.
For more information about this event or to RSVP, please contact Katie at 402-704-2647 or email at katie@3rphd.ne.gov.