University Daily Kansan / Thursday, January 18, 1990
11A
Keith Thorpe/KANSAN
Spring thaw?
Tim Wesley, of Lawrence, looks at the remaining ice at the Woodridge area of Clinton Lake on Monday. Recent temperatures have been above January averages.
When mid-terms are one for the books and the call of the wild beckons, chart a course to South Padre Island this spring break. South Padre Island offers something for every species—from Bobcats to Buffaloes. Wild or tame. As the premier coastal destination in Texas, South Padre offers balmy temperatures, beaches as broad as your imagination and ample accommodations from high rise condos, to camping on the beach. Take a refresher course to South Padre Island this spring break and discover a vacation playground that's a breed apart.
For free Spring Break Information,
call the South Padre Island Visitor and
Convention Bureau at 1-800-343-2368.
--from The Topeka Capital-Journal
For the facts call your local Red Cross, or write:
AIDS
American Red Cross
Washington, DC 20006
American Red Cross
South Padre Island Visitor & Convention Bureau
PO. Box 3500 CM    South Padre Island, TX 78579
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Disease takes toll on care providers
By Sandra Moran
Kansan staff writer
Alzheimer's disease can devastate its victim, but it also takes a toll on the person caring for the patient.
The stress from the situation often causes serious side effects for the care provider, said Susan Tebb, a Lawrence graduate student who is studying the effects of Alzheimer's on care-givers.
Alzheimer's disease causes a deterioration of mental faculties and usually affects people who are older than 60. Four million people in the United States suffer from Alzheimer's, Tebb said.
Tebb told of a woman who had cared for her husband for 10 years.
People with the disease progressively lose their ability to recognize their surroundings, their identities, their friends and family, Tebb said.
"He couldn't go out any longer on his own," she said. "She was providing total care for him at home. And then she, herself, began to feel ill. She neglected it, and about nine months later, was so sick that she collapsed and they found out that she had cancer."
To help prevent situations like this and to alert medical professionals when care is needed, Tebb developed two questionnaires now in use at the Colmery-O'Neil Veterans Administration Medical Center in Topeka.
"These questionnaires were developed to alert medical personnel to refer family members for supportive help through social services early in Alzheimer's, instead of after the care-giver has become totally drained and they just don't know where to turn." Teeb said.
If you give total care to somebody that you cannot interact with, you have closed off all your other doors,
Tebb said.
"My concern is that they need to be more aware that they have to give help to the family that is giving the care, because those are the people who need the help and that's who we can actually help."
In developing the questionnaire, Tebb interviewed eight care-givers of patients with Alzheimer's disease. From those interviews, she devised the two questionnaires. The first was developed to alert medical personnel as to whether to refer family members for support.
The other questionnaire, a self-reference form, asks questions that the care-giver must answer. If the care providers answered yes to any of the eight questions, Tebb suggested that they consider social support.
John Poertner, associate professor of social welfare, said that the School of Social Welfare was approached by Terry Herbert of the VA medical center about combining the student project with the medical center's program.
"We looked at what care-giving meant to them both socially and physically, and emotionally and even spiritually," Tebb said.
The questionnaires were developed by Tebb as part of a project she conducted after receiving a fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America.
The medical center was working with patients with Alzheimer's disease and wanted to expand its operation to include help for the caregivers, he said. The job that was occupied by Tebb has been reassigned to a full-time staff person in the program.
"What was really a student project, has become more institutionalized," Poortern said.
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