Hello everyone,
My name is Leah and I am currently a doctoral student at a univeristy in Northeast PA. I am currently working on my thesis and am interested in the effects of caregiving for AD patients. Specifically, I am interested in looking at how caregivers differ among those that use social support gropups/adult day care, betweeen those that use nursing homes/assisted living facilities and those that do not use any outside care.

To give you a little bit of background about myself and where my interests have come from... My grandmother came from a family of 12 children. Her mother had AD. 7 or 8 of her brothers and sisters (including her) had the disease. My grandmother suffered longer than most for over 15 years with the disease. I watched my grandfather care for her until the day she died. During this period, I noticed some changes in my grandfather as well as my grandmother. I wondered if anyone cared for the person doing all the caring. When I started my career in psychology I wanted to dedicate my studies to finding ways to help those caregivers who give so much of themselves.

My greatest fear is that soon my mom will develop the disease (my grandmother started to show signs in her early 50s, my mother has just turned 50).

If anyone is interested in my research please let me know. I am looking for what has been helpful to others and hope that I will be able to pass this information on to many who are in the same boat. If you would like to participate in my study (6 confidential questionnaires taking no more than 30 minutes to complete), please let me know. Also, any general information would be helpful. Thank you,
Leah