Treating dementia requires facilities

Sen. Pendleton says he’ll lobby for expansion of Western State
Part two in a two-part series

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Twenty miles north of Louisville, in Charlestown, Ind., the small St. Catherine Regional Hospital has a 26-bed facility for elderly patients who have mental problems.

The way a nurse describes it, the facility sounds like a far cry from a lush independent living center. But families, nursing homes and hospitals in Kentucky — including Western Kentucky — would be in worse trouble without it.

Often its patients have worked on farms or in auto shops or maintenance departments for years, said Amelia Johns, a St. Catherine nurse.

When dementia short-circuits their mental faculties, their bodies remain strong and even anxious. They can hardly sit still. Sometimes they tear out sinks, and one patient dismantled his entire bed.

“How he even took it apart with his bare hands is beyond me, but he did,” Johns said. “They’re pretty destructive sometimes.”

QuickInfo: Defining dementia

“Dementia” refers to several diseases that result in memory loss, mood changes and communication problems, according to literature from the Alzheimer’s Association. But they all consist of destruction of brain tissue, said Dr. Susan Vaught, director of psychology at Western State Hospital.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form. It results from protein “plaques” and “tangles” developing in the brain’s structure and killing off brain cells, the Alzheimer’s Society reports.

Usually it affects the newest memories first, Vaught said. This may explain why Tommy Hunt didn’t understand his father was dead.

Dementia: Falling through the cracks

Western Kentucky lacks resources for patients with most severe cases

Part one of a two-part series

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Roughly eight years ago, Stephanie Gamblin was driving her father to the coal mine where he had worked for 20 years. She asked him to navigate.

It unsettled her when Hunt said he didn’t know the route.

The family had noticed other signs of his memory decaying. Though he’d always been a handyman, for instance, it seemed to take him forever to finish tiling a cabinet for Brenda Hunt, his wife and Gamblin’s mother.

A doctor’s visit confirmed their fear: He had Alzheimer’s disease.

He stayed at home until 2010, when the family decided he needed full-time nursing care and sent him to Tradewater Health and Rehabilitation Center. Its location was ideal — a short drive for Brenda Hunt — but it soon seemed Tradewater was ill-equipped for dealing with his illness.