Alzheimer’s Disease

I chose to do my senior project at a facility where my mom oversees the dementia unit. She works for Country Meadows Retirement Communities and travels to five of their eleven locations in Pennsylvania. The one closest to our home was the Country Meadows Living Center on Trindle Road in Mechanicsburg. I also have a personal interest to learn more about dementia and Alzheimer’s disease because my grandfather, on my father’s side, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about three years ago.
Before volunteering at the Meadow’s Living Center (Meadow’s is the name they have chosen to call their dementia, secured units) my mom gave me information to read so that I would be familiar with some of the causes of dementia and also so that I would know what type of behaviors that I might encounter on the unit. The number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in our country alone is staggering – 5 million! It is the fourth leading cause of death. There are ove...