Alzheimer's Disease, Dementias and Healthy Aging

January 2026 Newsletter

Day Respite at Allen Brook

Respite care is essential because caring for a family member with dementia is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding and can lead to burnout. Family caregivers provide huge amounts of unpaid care, more than 18 billion hours annually valued at over $244 billion in 2019. By 2022 family caregivers provided care valued at $339.5 billion. Caregivers help the health care system avoid increased costs by substituting unpaid labor for paid services. By giving caregivers planned breaks, respite care supports their health and reduces stress, making it more likely they can continue caregiving over the long term. Well-rested caregivers also deliver higher-quality care, better managing daily needs and the behavior challenges common with dementias. Respite time can allow caregivers to keep their employment, handle personal responsibilities, and maintain social connections, reducing the risk of financial hardship and social isolation. Without programs like respite care, caregivers are more likely to experience burnout that leads to crisis, poorer health outcomes, avoidable hospitalizations, or premature institutionalization of their loved ones.

How Mindfulness Affects

the Brain and Body

Mindfulness significantly boosts brain health by enhancing focus, emotional regulation, and stress resilience through neuroplasticity, leading to structural changes like increased gray matter in areas for learning and emotion (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus) and decreased stress response in the amygdala, improving overall mental clarity and cognitive function. It strengthens attentional networks, reduces mind-wandering (Default Mode Network), and promotes better communication between brain regions, essentially rewiring the brain for greater well-being and self-control. 

• Mindfulness meditation can lower blood pressure, moderate heart rate, improve inflammation, and help with pain management.
• Meditation can prevent age-related atrophy in the brain.

Dementia Care Expert Teepa Snow Answers Caregiving Questions

Dementia care expert Teepa Snow MS, OTR/L, FAOTA (the founder of Positive Approach to Care) is an Occupational Therapist with over forty years of clinical and academic experience. Her company, Positive Approach to Care® (PAC), provides online and in-person education and products to support those living with brain change. She also founded the Snow Approach Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The recording below contains vital information based upon questions from individuals caring for a loved one with a dementia.