The Tangled Neuron

Lakeview Ranch Model Featured in AHRQ Innovations Exchange

My friend Judy Berry's Lakeview Ranch Model of Specialized Dementia Care™ is featured in the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) Innovations Exchange.  This publication is a clearinghouse for innovations and tools to improve the quality of healthcare. 

I'm glad to see the Lakeview Ranch model get this kind of endorsement from an agency like AHRQ -- Judy's approach deserves national and international attention.

The Musician's Mind: Need Input on Character Interaction

The Musician's Mind is an interactive graphic novel about Alzheimer's.  The interactive part means that readers can influence the story and characters via blog comments and by “talking” with fictional characters via Facebook, Twitter, online forums, and perhaps some live events.

I’d like to develop and publish some guidelines for this interaction, keeping in mind the sensitivities and potential vulnerability of people with memory loss and their families.  For instance, is it ok to have the fictional characters comment on posts in online support forums?  Ask for advice?  Should they state they are fictional characters in every post?  Should I contact each group leader before posting? 

What are some ways the fictional characters can be supportive of online group members?  What do they need to be especially sensitive about?

Any other considerations?

The Musician's Mind Graphic Novel - 3rd Strip

click on strip to enlarge

In the third strip of The Musician's Mind graphic novel about Alzheimer's, Parker is back home in Chicago, being interviewed for a nationally broadcast public television program. He sticks to his favorite theme of truth and music.

The older I get, the less sure I am about a lot of things.  I don't think this is true with Parker --at 54,  he sees the world in black and white.  Do you think this will change after he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's?

More About The Musician's Mind

click on strip to enlarge

Here's the second strip of The Musician's Mind, the interactive graphic novel I've been working on.  The story is about Parker Sanningham, a concert pianist who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and disappears at the height of his career. 

In the first strip, he kept the orchestra waiting to start the Friday rehearsal because he couldn't remember how to start the third movement of the piano concerto he would be performing Saturday night.  This was a first for him - he is normally totally in control.

In this second strip, despite his memory glitch on Friday, Parker's Saturday performance is stellar. After the performance, he takes a quick call from his wife Vanessa. He can't talk long, though, because he has to be at a reception for concert hall patrons and donors. At the reception, he explains his theories about the twin truths of math and music.  Awfully sure of things, isn't he?

Question for readers:  should I call this a graphic novel or a web comic?  Which is easier to understand?

Thanks to Penny Peterson for the link to a fascinating and entertaining TED video on creativity and the brain - http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv.html

Biomarkers: Some Thoughts from Richard Taylor

       Richard Taylor, PhD

Note:  as a person with dementia and a retired psychologist, Richard is uniquely positioned to think about Alzheimer's and dementia.  Here are some of his thoughts about what the headlines on biomarkers mean for people with dementia and their families.

Will I "get" Alzheimer's Disease/Dementia? How can I know before even my brain knows, or at least shows any signs of knowing? The answers claim the usual gang of suspects turns out to be in a bag of bodily fluids (mostly blood and spinal fluid), DNA, Genes, and stuff I spilled on myself while eating lunch just before I went in to the "create your own bag of bio markers" get-together.

Change comes and goes fast, very fast. For someone living with the symptoms of dementia the change I have experienced since my diagnosis about nine years ago would even spin the head of someone whose cognitive skills are not slipping. For me, since my skills are slipping and the change is literally overwhelming. Now comes the claim there is a bag of biomarkers that predicts Alzheimer's (or is it dementia) with a 90% accuracy rate, and can predict it way, way before our brain is effected by the biology of dementia (if indeed there is such a freestanding biology).

Introducing The Musician's Mind: A Graphic Novel About Alzheimer's

 
     click on strip to enlarge

I've been working on an interactive graphic novel called The Musician's Mind.  The story is about Parker Sanningham, a concert pianist who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and disappears at the height of his career.  That's Parker at the piano in the rehearsal room on the right above.

In the first installment, above, Parker Sanningham lingers backstage, while the conductor and orchestra wait to start a rehearsal.  It's the day before an important performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. For the first time, he's aware of having a memory problem -- he can't remember how a piano concerto movement starts. 

I'm calling the graphic novel interactive because I'd like readers' experiences and ideas to influence the story. 

Take a look at the story and the characters.  Would you be interested in following this story?    If so, please subscribe to email updates using the box on the top right of this page.

Would you like to influence the story?  You can do that by leaving comments on this post or on The Musician's mind page.  You can also talk with two of the [fictional] characters, Parker and his wife Vanessa Sanningham on Facebook.  Please "friend" them when you have time!