Look. Snap. Connect - exercises to boost the ageing brain

"As human brains age, they lose their ability to recall memories. Our memory peaks at the age of 30, and then it declines gradually with time.... Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and aging at UCLA, says there are ways that we can reduce the effects of this kind of memory loss by exercising our brains—training our neurons the same way that we can exercise our muscles at the gym using relatively simple techniques. He distills the basics of these down to three concepts: "look, snap, connect."

• Look = focusing attention. The biggest reason that people don’t remember things is they’re simply not paying attention.
• Snap = create a mental snapshot of information you want to recall later.
  
• Connect = linking up those mental snapshots eg. "if I’m running out quickly and I have two errands, pick up eggs and go to the post office. I might visualize in my mind and egg with a stamp on it."

Source: Neural Exercises Boost the Aging Brain

This article is part of a series in the Big Think's Month of Going Mental

Alzheimer's Australia National TV Campaign

There's a difference between forgetting and memory loss.


Resources for your library:
Alzheimers affects whole families, loved ones, carers and the patient themselves. What resources are available in your public library? Here are just a few:

• Alzheimer's : what you must know to protect your brain and improve your memory : Dr Sandra Cabot's ground breaking 4-point program / Sandra Cabot
• The best friends approach to Alzheimer's care / Virginia Bell and David Troxel
• The best friends book of Alzheimer's activities : 147 fun, easy, and enriching activities / Virginia Bell

Festival of active living - Library Stars

The winner of this year's Health and Aging category of the ALIA Library Stars was the "Festival of Active Living" held by The Hills Shire Library Service in NSW.

The three-day Festival included hobbies, health and wellbeing and lifestyle options and talks by gardening guru Sandra Ross, meditation expert Kevin Hume, media personality Ita Buttrose and author Mary Moody. Stalls were provided by community groups such as artists, knitters, yoga instructors and chiropractors. The Rock n Soul Choir really showed just how loud and vibrant libraries can be.

Objectives of the festival were:

• to change perceptions about libraries and increase awareness and usage;
  
• open opportunities for seniors to remain active and enhance their quality of life;
• to help build a vibrant, healthy and active community; and
  
• to provide avenues for seniors to connect and be part of their community.

Also worthy of a mention - the judges highly commended the Burnside Library, South Australia for "The 5 P’s of Public Libraries – Progressive Promotion, Partnerships and Popular Programs". A range of programs have been introduced to entice baby boomers into the library, where they can use their leisure time in a productive, creative and meaningful way.
The services have been categorised into three streams:

• Progressive Promotion; using technology such as Vodcasts and Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to promote library services.
• Partnerships; linking with a wide range of groups to provide programs of interest to baby boomers. One example of a partnership is the library working with the State Theatre Company to promote selected plays under the umbrella of the Scene It? program.
• Partnerships with local book stores to host author visits and the Book of The Year presentation have also been included in the partnerships program.
• Popular Programs; Many services of interest to baby boomers are offered, including a range of computer classes, social classes such as art and craft and languages and reader advisory and general entertainment programs.
  

Extreme Seniors

This clip featuring the athletic adventures of some of Whistler's most extreme senior citizens really speaks for itself.

Challenging Ageing Stereotypes

My mother always said you should never judge a person til you'd walked a mile in their shoes. That's exactly what a Glasgow actress did - she tried on the face and hair of an older woman and travelled around the city centre shops, cafes, train stations and streets - to see how differently the public treated her.

Find out more at www.seetheperson.info

First aid readiness

It is rare for me to visit my local shopping centre around midday during the week. But this week I did just that. In the space of just a couple of hours, I saw two teams of paramedics assisting elderly shoppers who were injured or had collapsed. The shopping centre staff handled each situation calmly, they knew their procedures and even had screens at the ready to shield an elderly man who'd collapsed on the main concourse from view.

It made me wonder how ready most public library staff might be to handle a similar situation. Are procedures in place? Have staff been trained to handle common incidents? In a crisis how will they react?

As our community ages and the numbers of older people using libraries increases accordingly we need to start thinking about our first aid readiness.

Dementia Awareness Week

Perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of ageing is memory loss. How often have you heard someone refer to having a 'senior moment'? There are even computer games marketed with the promise that they will 'help you improve your brain'.

Why not find out what you can do to help yourself during Dementia Awareness Week from September 16-26. Check out the Mind your Mind program from Alzheimers Australia.

The seven Mind your Mind signposts are:

1. Mind your Brain – Keep your brain active
2. Mind your Diet – Eat healthily
3. Mind your Body – Be physically active
4. Mind your Health Checks – Manage blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar and weight
5. Mind your Social Life – Participate in social activities
6. Mind your Habits – Avoid tobacco smoke and only drink alcohol in moderation
7. Mind your Head- Protect your head from serious injury
   

Research indicates that these seven steps may help reduce risk and may even delay the onset of dementia.

Ageing and diversity

A couple of years ago the Seniors in Focus @ your library seminar featured a panel discussion: Ageing issues for specific groups including CALD, Indigenous and GLBTIQ community members.

The presenters included Jan Aitken from Ten Forty Matrix. Jan posed some thought provoking questions and issues for all home library service providers to consider to ensure our services are inclusive of members of the Lesbian and Gay Community.

Issues for ageing gay community members:

1. Invisibility, being in the closet still, living in a setting such as a nursing home, hostel or retirement village where ‘coming out’ may be difficult.
   
2. Lack of information about and access to gay/lesbian resources.
3. Dealing with aged care staff whose attitudes are not known and may be negative.
   

Issues for libraries:

1. Collection policies: how does gay/lesbian literature make it into the library?
2. How does this extend to other media: CDs, videos, DVDs etc?
3. What about magazines: does your library have LOTL ( Lesbians on the Loose) and Sydney Star Observer?
4. Reading lists: Do you have a lesbian/gay reading list?
5. If the answer is no to all or most of these what is the reason for the lack?
6. Internet access: rapidly becoming important – can you assist clients’ access?
   

Sydney based resources:

• Feminist Bookshop
• The Bookshop
• The pink directory
• Older dykes