By Bob DeMarco Alzheimer’s Reading Room There is an excellent article and audio cast available on the National Public Radio (NPR) website. If you have the time I would recommend listening to the audio. When Samara Howard recently dropped off her elderly mother Johnnye Jennings at a three-day camp for people with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, it was the first night she’d been away from Jennings in seven years. “Normally, I only sleep maybe two hours a night because she wakes up and she wanders and she turns on the stove,” says Howard, who eventually had to quit her job to take care of her mother full-time. “I haven’t slept through the night in years.” The Camp for Caring is a weekend sleepover camp at a woodsy conference center outside San Francisco. The retreat, sponsored a few times a year — funding permitting — by the nonprofit Family Caregiver Alliance, brings together 18 to 20 people who have dementia for a refreshing, engaging weekend of music, dance, reminiscing and other activities that emphasize strengths instead of losses. The campers typically don’t remember details of the retreat, says Caitlin Morgan, the gerontologist and social worker who directs the camp. But the experience significantly lifts their mood. “It’s all about the feeling,” Morgan says. “By the end of the retreat, [they say] ‘whatever we did, it feels like something good has happened here.’” Go here to read and listen — Camp For Alzheimer’s Patients Isn’t About Memories Subscribe to the Alzheimer’s Reading Room Enter Your Email Address More About the Alzheimer’s Reading Room 60 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer’s Reading Room Alzheimer’s CareGiving — Insight and Advice Test Your Memory for Alzheimer’s (5 Best Self Assessment Tests) Communicating in Alzheimer’s World Worried About Alzheimer’s Disease — You Should Be What is Alzheimer’s? What are the Eight Types of Dementia? Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer’s Patients Alzheimer’s Disease Statistics Is it Really Alzheimer’s or Something Else? Ten Symptoms of Early Stage Alzheimer’s Ten Tips for Communicating with an Alzheimer’s Patient Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer’s Reading Room and an Alzheimer’s caregiver. Bob has written more than 1,810 articles with more than 89,500 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL. The Alzheimer’s Action Plan