Raise Awareness with This Purple and White Garden

The new, one-of-a-kind Better Homes and Gardens® Alzheimer Awareness Perennial Garden is a lasting way to honor someone affected by Alzheimer’s or champion the cause by sending it as a gift. When you purchase this combination of fragrant purple and white perennials, 10 percent of the sales go directly to the Alzheimer’s Association to support vital research and programs.

The garden debuted in November for National Alzheimer Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month but will be for sale year-round by White Flower Farm.

Meredith Publications, publisher of more than 14 magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Parents, More and Family Circle, is offering the garden exclusively with the Alzheimer’s Association.

The garden was designed by Better Homes and Gardens staff in their Test Garden. This ensures that the plants are reliable, easy-care performers appropriate for most areas of the country.

White Flower Farm is selling the 10-plant collection for $99.95 plus shipping. The garden includes salvia, echinacea, phlox, sedum and aster. Plants will be shipped during your local planting season.

Whether a garden is small or sprawling, the Alzheimer Awareness Perennial Garden can give it a memorable focus that will change with the seasons and provide a sense of renewal and hope.

To order the garden, look for ads in the November issue of Meredith magazines. You may also call White Flower Farm at 1.800.420.2852 or be linked to their Web site through www.alz.org/ShopfortheCause.

Alzheimer's Awareness Stamp Release

On October 17 the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp to increase concern and public awareness of Alzheimer's disease. The 42-cent commemorative stamp seeks generate greater public awareness about Alzheimer’s disease as part of the Postal Service’s long tradition of raising public awareness of health and social issues through it stamp program.  More information is available here.

In honor of the more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s and their 10 million caregivers, art director Ethel Kessler and illustrator Matt Mahurin sought to illuminate the vital relationship and dynamic between those living with the disease and their caregivers.

Caregiver Stress Check

This November, during National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month, the Alzheimer’s Association is helping to relieve the physical and emotional stress these caregivers experience with the introduction of a new resource – Caregiver Stress Check.

Caregiver Stress Check is a first-of-its-kind, interactive quiz that helps caregivers identify their symptoms of stress and provides them with a tailored list of helpful referrals and resources. Stress check questions include simple statements such as:

• Feeling like I have to do it all myself because no one else cares about my family members like I do and feeling that I should be doing more.
• Withdrawal from family, friends and activities that I used to enjoy.
• Worry about the person I care for being safe.
• Anxiety about money and health care expenses.

When caregivers answer “yes” to stress symptoms, they are lead to Alzheimer's Association resources designed to alleviate their specific issues. For example, if the caregiver worries about the safety of the person they care for they might be directed to MedicAlert® + Alzheimer's Association Safe Return®, a national program to combat wandering.

To access the Caregiver Stress Check, click here.