Finglas man aims to ‘disrupt’ Alzheimer’s

FEW diseases cause as much distress to both families and sufferers as Alzheimer’s.

It’s a progressive, degenerative and incurable illness that conventional medicine struggles to contain.

But what if it could be disrupted, interfered with or slowed down in a controlled way that improved the quality of life of the patient and gave relief to families?

Well reflexologist Christy Fleming from Finglas believes it can, and he’s using some unconventional methods to prove he’s right.

Christy’s motivation for his

‘Disrupting Alzheimer’s’ project stems from his brother Pat’s diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s in 2008 when he was just 54.

“Pat had lived most of his adult life in the UK,

? says Christy.

“It was a shock to our family on hearing this news as we had no idea anything was wrong with him.

?

Pat’s phone calls home to Ireland had become less frequent and his family’s attempts to contact him were proving futile. In desperation they travelled to the UK to find Pat in a very disturbed and confused state.

After he was diagnosed the family decided he should return to Ireland to be near the support of family and friends.

“He now lives in his own purposely built home which is situated in the back of my sister’s house in Finglas,

? says Christy who now lives in Co Meath.

While living in the UK Pat developed a keen interest in complementary medicine and regularly had massage and reflexology sessions. Christy could see his brother was benefiting from the treatments and wondered if it could help other families affected by Alzheimer’s.

“Pat’s openness and keen interest in complementary therapies was a deciding factor in us initiating an Alzheimer’s project with an innovative approach to helping disrupt the progression of this degenerative disease,

? says Christy.

And so in 2010 Disrupting Alzheimer’s was founded. The project consists of continuous residential workshops and it combines a holistic approach with practical everyday life tasks to help improve the quality of life of sufferers.

“We hear the same stories with Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families throughout the country – the system can’t really do anything for them,

? says Christy.

“They are given medication and told to come back every year or so for check-ups but that’s really it. The Alzheimer’s Society does amazing work supporting families but it’s badly under-resourced.

“There’s no actual hope there for families and no formal mechanism to fight back. We wanted to try and change that, and in the two years we’ve been at it we have noticed small but significant improvements in Pat every time we get to tackle it in an intensive way.

“The key challenge however is to get some real continuity and to see it operate in the context of regular, longer residential programmes.

?

Disrupting Alzheimer’s recently ran its sixth holistic residential workshop at Slí an Chroí, spiritual retreat in Kiltegan, Co Wicklow. The retreat provides a dedicated, calm environment where a range of complimentary therapies, supports, activities and treatments to counter the effects of Alzheimer’s and other dementias are carried out by a team of professionals and volunteers.

“Some are friends, more are professional colleagues or acquaintances and many have been badgered into doing this by me,

? says Christy.

“All are involved because they believe something more can be done for sufferers of what is one of the most prevalent yet little understood diseases in Ireland, and all see the results coming through in Pat.

“There is absolutely nowhere that patients like Pat can get this sort of treatment in such an integrated way in such a condensed period of time.

“As far as we can tell it has never been tried anywhere in the world before. We see significant improvements in Pat every time he gets to do a residential course like this and we try to continue the practices as much as we can back home.

“His language skills, memory, co-ordination, awareness levels and general ability to interact improve so much and it’s like getting glimpses of the real Pat back more regularly.

“We’d love to set the project on a more formal footing so that it was available to more patients and their families more often.

?

Christy’s dream is to make the Disrupting Alzheimer’s project available to dementia patients as part of their public health treatment. He’s put together a proposal for cost-effective funding of additional residential workshops to help prove the model works.

He’s also interested in working with health professionals and academics to give further rigour to its practices and findings.

“In these early stages, though, it’s all about building awareness

?, says Christy.

?¢ A short documentary and additional information on Pat Fleming and the professionals involved in the Disrupting Alzheimer’s Project is available at www.thegenieexperience.com. Christy Fleming can be contacted on 086-1045197.