Alice in Wonderland meets Alzheimer's Disease

Proceeds from Song Donated To Alzheimer's Association

by Alice Tease on 09/15/14

Jenny Van Alstyne, the artist and creator behind AliceTease, loves to create music.

Jenny has released a cover song of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel". Jenny's reflective rendition of "Angel" juxtaposes fragility and strength. Jenny cites Sarah McLachlan as a leading musical influence and hopes this cover does Sarah's hauntingly beautiful ballad justice. This performance is dedicated to Jenny's grandmother. In her grandmother's honor, the proceeds from the sales of this track will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

This track is currently available for purchase on www.jennyvanalstyne.com as well as iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon and any other online outlets where music is sold.

Jenny's music can be currently heard on WOS radio which can be streamed at www.wosradio.com or played from the free iTunes and Google Play app labeled "Women of Substance Radio".

Thank you for supporting the fight to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease!

Jenny's upcoming musical project is the Card House Skyscrapers EP. Her ethereal singer-songwriter style is vulnerable and poetic, and simultaneously possesses fragility and strength.

Jenny's grandmother has always been a steadfast influence on Jenny's life and music. Recently, Jenny has penned songs that are a reaction to her grandmother's battle with Alzheimer's disease. Having cared for her grandmother during the course of this mind-robbing disease, Jenny witnessed her grandmother's brave defiance, and the love that still existed, even when the disease had stripped much else away. Jenny wanted to capture a haunting, but ethereal beauty in her song "Ceiling Becomes the Floor", and chronicles the search for a solid ground in a landscape that was forever changing as memories receded in "Let Love Carry Us". Jenny's musical influences include Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell, Patti Griffin, and Adele.

The Card House Skyscrapers EP will be released and available on iTunes and CD Baby. These songs are Jenny's musical attempt to restore dignity to the one who once cared for her. This music is her snow, her hope to blanket some of the disease's ugliness, if only for a moment..

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Advocates Want the National Alzheimer's Project Act to Take Shape Around These Key Issues

by Alice Tease on 12/07/11

Today, an estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, and by 2050 as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease. These numbers are staggering, and if nothing is done to challenge the trajectory of this disease, it could crush the nation's health care system, surpassing $1 trillion in costs annually by mid-century. It is the sixth leading cause of death--and the only disease that currently has no means of prevention, a cure, or even an effective way to slow it's progress. We have to take action, now!

Over 43,000 advocates from around the country were a part of the National Alzheimer's Project Act's input process. During this process, individuals expressed the objectives that they desired for NAPA to address. Key concerns included increasing Alzheimer's awareness and the scope of the disease's impact, creating an environment that would offer more effective treatments faster, having a higher standard and quality of care throughout the disease process, providing a support network for caregivers, and providing better care in underserved communities.

Harry Jones, the CEO of the Alzheimer's Association, issued the following statement. "Individuals, families and communities are at the center of the escalating Alzheimer's crisis. Thousands of these individuals shared their experiences from the frontlines," said Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association. "Americans who participated in this process want the nation's leaders to know Alzheimer's forever changes lives. In the end, these individuals want and deserve a transformational plan that urgently addresses their needs."

"It's clear that those who participated in these input sessions do not want this opportunity to be a symbolic overture but instead the beginning of real, transformational action," added Robert Egge, vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association."We hope those developing the National Alzheimer's Plan will be inspired and guided by the challenges, experiences and needs echoed throughout the report."

The Alzheimer's Association's Alzheimer's from the Frontlines: Challenges a National Alzheimer's Plan Must Address report can be viewed at www.alz.org/napa.

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David Hyde Pierce, Advocating for Alzheimer's Awareness

by Alice Tease on 10/27/11

David Hyde Pierce is a strong advocate for Alzheimer's awareness and has been for 15 years. He addresses some poignant questions over the battle of Alzheimer's disease, such as:

Q: What would help us defeat Alzheimer's? Are there new medicine and treatments coming or do we still need a lot of research? What would help us move forward in the best way?

Pierce: Right now funding for most major disease is in the billions of dollars. Federal funding for research, federal funding for Alzheimer's is in the millions. Alzheimer's at this point--this is a change in the last five years since I first talk to you guys-- has advanced to become the sixth-leading cause of death in the country. So we're in a time where people are not interested in the government spending more money and there's great concern about the deficit, there's great concern about health care and the cost of health care and social security, Medicare and Medicaid. All of those concerns will be effectively wiped out if we don't focus resources, our attention and also finance resources on more research and more access.

We already know great ways to help take care of people to help make their lives easier when they have the disease and to help their family's along but there's an astonishing number of people in this country who have no access to this, who aren't aware. It's such a lonesome disease if you don't know about the resources of the Alzheimer's Association, the support groups and the outreach, and the referral services they have. I'm shocked that working so many years on this that it is still such an isolated disease that so many people aren't aware of what it is and what treatment and services are available. That to me is not a huge expense. We still need billions of dollars for research. We can only fund about 25 percent of the proposals that we get now.

It's unbelievable, we would never in a million years go to fight a war and say, "hey that's great but we're only going to pay for about 25 percent of it, we'll just hope it turns out OK." But in terms of loss of life and devastation to the economy this is a war with a lot of collateral damage and I'm very hopeful that because the disease is so terrible and because it is so widespread and because we already started to make breakthroughs in early diagnosis and better care for people with Alzheimer's, the country as a whole will start to see that there is hope and see that there is potential, that there's a chance to turn Alzheimer's into what polio now is. It was at one time the scourge of this country and now is a disease at least in this country we don't really talk about or think about. That is the potential, that is the hope but as with polio we have to as a nation face it together and do what must be done.

For the full article please visit:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44966598/ns/us_news-giving/

Make a difference and have some fun too:

AliceTease will be a sponsor in the Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop! Please visit Going Crazy Wanna Go? for details. Going Crazy Wanna Go? is an awesome blog spot with the latest news on giveaways, greal deals, and good blog reads. Giveaway runs between October 28-- November 2, and winner will receive a $30 gift card redeemable at the AliceTease etsy shop.

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World Alzheimer's Day, September 21st

by Alice Tease on 09/20/11

Today, Sept 21st has been declared World Alzheimer's Day. And this year, the entire month of September is World Alzheimer's Month. Now more than ever, it is crucial for us to show our support to end this debilitating thief of a disease- a disease that slowly steals your loved one's mind ruthlessly, leaving you to helplessly watch the horrible unraveling.

Please take a moment today to visit www.alz.org/wam to find out how you can help make a difference.

Also, the Alzheimer Association has a matching gift challenge that goes through today, Sept 21st in which donation made by today will be matched by an outside donor until the Alzheimer's Association reaches their set goal. Therefore, donations made by the end of the day today have the potential to be doubled. To learn more about the World Alzheimer's Day Matching Gift Challenge, please visit www.alz.org/dm/wam/match3.htm .

AliceTease will be making a donation today as well, so 50% of the proceeds from sales made up until 11:00pm EST will be donated in time for the World Alzheimer's Day Matching Gift Challenge. So please, take a look around at my web store, my etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/AliceTease, or my ebay store and see if there's anything that you would like. Also, visit us on facebook to keep up to date on events. AliceTease is currently a sponsor of a give-a-way for www.goingcrazywannago.com , in which we will giving away a $30 gift card for the AliceTease etsy shop.

But most importantly, show your support in the fight against Alzheimer's. Visit the Alzheimer's Association and see what you can do to help - through a donation, participating in a memory walk, or participating in other Alzheimer's Awareness events in your community. Thank you, for taking the time to explore a way that you can make a difference.

Please give your voice to a cause that a loved one can not fight on their own.

The Alzheimer Prayer - Author Unknown

Please grant my visitors tolerance for my confusion,
Forgiveness for my irrationality and the strength
To walk with me into the mist of memory
My world has become.

Please let them take my hand and stay awhile,
Even though I seem unaware of their presence.

Help them to know how their strength
And loving care will drift slowly
Into the days to come just when I need it most.

Let them know when I don't recognize them
That I will. . . I will.
Keep their hearts free from sorrow for me,
For my sorrow, when it comes,
Only lasts a moment, then it's gone.

And finally, please let them know,
How very much their visits mean,
How even through this relentless mystery,
I can still feel their love.

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Please share your voice- National Alzheimer's Plan

by Alice Tease on 08/11/11

If you have witnessed a loved one's mind become ravaged by Alzheimer's Disease, please share your input on how you'd like the government to focus it's energies under the National Alzheimer's Plan.

Here's the link : http://napa.alz.org/president

Personally, I would like the National Alzheimer's plan to focus much of its energy and funding on research to find a cure for this mind robbing disease.

As someone who took care of their grandmother and watched this unyielding disease clench it's hold around her - I can tell you it is the most horrific thing I have ever witnessed.

People treat people with Alzheimer's as if they were no longer human, just empty shells. Many people just assume that since the person doesn't recognize them, that nothing they contribute will make a difference. Eventually, an Alzheimer's patient needs 24 hour care. For two years, I cared for my grandmother in her home--but due to financial reasons the power of attorney decided to move her into a facility.

Horrible abuse runs rampant in nursing facilities, and people often abuse power of attorney for their own personal gain. When reports are made to agencies such as the Department of Aging and Disabilities services and the investigators have to speak to the power of attorney which is abusing said power, the Alzheimer's patient's needs and care are very easily undermined.

Therefore the answer is not just simply increased spending towards these facilities---even the best of which often simply do not have the manpower to care for an Alzheimer's patient as a loved one providing care can--but to increase the spending on research.

Ultimately, if a cure is not found for this disease it will become a global epidemic. Alzheimer's disease did not receive as much attention as other diseases in previous years, because there is no such thing as a Alzheimer's "survivor" who can stand before the lawmakers and give testimony. And the caregivers can't do it either--literally your entire personal and professional life is on hold while you provide care to a loved one with Alzheimer's.

A cure must be found, otherwise this disease will bankrupt the entire health care system, and cause further devastation to the American workforce. But the worst is the agony of watching this horrible disease slowly kill the person you love while it steals their own recollection of who they are.

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