Montana Statistics
https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/montana-alzheimers-facts-figures-2023.pdf 

22,000 people aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s. 17,000 caregivers provide care for someone with Alzheimer’s translating to 25 million hours of unpaid care at an estimated monetary value of $425 million.

National Statistics
https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures-infographic.pdf 

More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's.  When a family member has Alzheimer's, everyone in that family is affected, including children!.  Approximately 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer's or other dementias and some of this population may also be caring for children at the same time.

Impacts to Montana Families

With the increase in prevalence rates, many Montana children will know and interact with someone with Alzheimer’s. As the symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s progress, a person’s mood and personality changes often cause unusual and distressing behaviors. This creates stress on family caregivers and can have negative effects on a child’s emotions and behaviors. When interacting with an individual with Alzheimer’s, children may show signs of anxiety, confusion, and loss. They may also feel scared, guilty, upset, and embarrassed. When parents have knowledge and access to resources about Alzheimer’s dementia, they can support a child’s experience and decrease the likelihood these experiences will cause undue stress on the child and family.

Bibliotheraphy: An Evidence-Based Approach 

To help children cope with significant life events, parents, educators, and other professionals have turned to developmental bibliotherapy, the practice of using storybooks to help children understand and cope with difficult experiences such as having a loved one with Alzheimer’s dementia.

How is Montana State University-Extension Addressing the Impacts of Alzheimer's on Children and Families?

Montana State University Extension has developed a storybook program for children and families who may be experiencing a loved one with Alzheimer’s dementia with the goal to provide supportive and easily accessible resources to parents and children across Montana.

Intended Audience

Extension Agents, Childcare Providers, Teachers, Librarians, Activity Directors at long-term care facilities, Parents/Caregiver’s, Family Members, or anyone interested in using storybooks to help children and families understand Alzheimer’s disease.

Program Resources

Through storybooks, parents and children can learn about Alzheimer’s dementia (stages, behaviors, and positively ways to interact and communicate) and what their loved one may be experiencing. 

Another way these storybooks support families is by providing parents with an understanding of what their child may be experiencing and how they can support their social and emotional wellbeing during this time.  We hope by providing this resource, stronger multigenerational relationships will be fostered across Montana.

Program Implementation Ideas

Our program team has developed four implementation ideas for professionals, organizations, or individuals to implement these storybooks into their communities. We invite you to participate in this program using one or more of the implementation ideas listed below.

  1. Community Training Sessions: (with Training Videos to Download and Share)
  2. Alzheimer Resource/Storybook Bags
  3. Little Free Libraries
  4. Newspaper Articles

 

Marketing Tools

Our program team has developed several marketing tools to help promote your program throughout your communities.

https://alzheimers.msuextension.org/alzheimertraining/marketing.html 

 

Using Storybooks and Reading Guides

We have developed Reading Guides for seven storybooks depicting children’s experiences with a loved one with Alzheimer’s dementia. To view these guides please visit: https://www.montana.edu/extension/alzheimers/storybookandreadingguides.html 

The Reading Guides include questions to ask a child while reading the book, common reactions a child may have towards Alzheimer's disease, enrichment activities to help tie together the key ideas of each book, and websites that provide information to support the whole family.

Please note:  In the piloting of this program, many of these reading guides were developed to be utilized by teachers, librarians, or parents as a four-part series beginning with a book that clearly explains Alzheimer’s dementia and provides supportive notes/sections for the reader (e.g. Striped shirts and Flowered Pants) and building off this foundation with other books that depict children’s emotional experiences as they navigate relationships with grandparents who have Alzheimer’s dementia.