Caring for caregivers and Alzheimer's group

Happy Monday ka, everyone. I hope you're enjoying the first working day of the week and the first day of September ka....even when many of us here are retirees ka.

Last weekend, my friend and I attended several free sessions for the elderly/ caregivers/ interested individuals, and on caring for Alzheimer's group. I'd like to share what I've learned ka.

- Many stories shared focused mainly on families. It shows clearly how we need to promote positive parenting and strengthen family relationships. Though it seems obvious, we still face challenges from communication, cultural, and generational gaps, which could be prevented/lessened to some extent.

Just listened to a doctor (Mission to the Moon) who said, '....the best thing to do is to walk in the open area outdoors in the morning with your loved ones...' It made me think of several related things from physical health to get some sun to enhanced relationships ka. Some would think otherwise as walking alone is a form of self-care and could offer some 'aha' moments na ka.....we hit the balance in our own lives based on our own decisions lae na ka.

- Knowing when we're about to 'burn out' would be helpful for us to pause what we've been doing and turn our attention to other activities. Burnout signals include weight loss, introvertedness, deep stress, restlessness, etc.

This is somehow similar to what I learned from earlier 'Facing deaths ....' training. It confirms one key issue of overburdened caregivers. Some families leave parental care in the hands of one particular family member. Support in terms of cash could ease off but the crucial part is for other members to be committed in terms of time and interactions. It could be highly helpful for the main caregivers to have some personal space. If affordable, seek outside helpers.

- We should be able to spot some warning signals of those who may have Alzheimer's, which are some changes from thinking, talking, and acting. Several stories given were as follows:

               - Persons who are normally polite start being rude, using harsh languages.

               - All of the sudden, forget how to drive back home when the person was an expert as the 'GPS' of the family.

               - One elder started to take off one car wheel to get one piece of cloth that got to be under the wheel.

- Lessons learned from Fukuoka, Japan are fascinating. The country has placed Alzheimer's case as its national priority, noting that by 2050, 1 in 7 of the population will get some forms of Dementia. So, it has moved forward to treat patients with higher respect. The government has worked closely with the private sector for win-win situations in terms of support, products/commercialization, etc. They set up more centers for the elderly to feel comfortable, start giving some tips to much younger kids in schools, communicate to the public how to handle this group with patience and caring.

Some little tips to know Alzheimer's group include making visual posts larger and at the eyesight level (the fewer posters, the better too),  using sounds to alert them like warning about using their stoves, having the fewest buttons on gadgets they have to use, tidying houses with the least stuff around to confuse them, never using stainless materials as they could see it as 'water', and no 'black' floor as for them, it is seen as a 'hole' to hinder them from walking. I also like it when an Alzheimer's group is hired to earn a little income, keep them active, and use the opportunities as data collection for related research.

More aware loei ka.

Lessons from an elder!

Morning kaaaa! Been stuck with a brief provincial visit and a few activities in between....unbelievable how things have paraded my way.

Glad that I could think of what I love to share kaa.

It was from the visit to one of my best friends' house in Rayong....I've mentioned about our 'show' as part of her older sister's 80th birthday last year (we call her เจ๊ติ๊ด Jae Tid). This time, we only went there to chat and eat. As always, Jae Tid and my friend, หนู Nu, spoiled us rotten with lots of food, durian and other pastries. OMG! My weight!

This visit, Nu asked me to sit by Jae Tid to make sure she ate and ate more. I did my best to cheer and at our first breakfast there, I found what was our common interest.....my love of asking questions and her ready sharing about her life.....sanuk, sad, amazing, inspiring, etc.

To give you a context....thinking of a big family earning their income by fishing till they had 20 mid-sized to large fishing boats with about 200 workers, mostly men from Isaan....and Jae Tid was the one managing the boats and workers.

She had to quit school around 17 after finishing her lower secondary school because one older sister was killed in a car accident and the family needed someone to replace her. 

Some from our Qs&As ka:))!

Ptk: What made you decide to quit ka?

JT: No one else could do it then and we needed to send younger ones to school, especially the one who was at the CMU medical school.

Ptk: How did you manage to control male workers at such a young age?

JT: I put on a straight face without smiling. (she still has this quality to a certain extent ka.)

Ptk: What made the workers listen and do as told?

JT: I was decisive and serious. Once I heard the workers talk about me. It was clear they were afraid of me. One said, 'even when I see her shadow, I get scared.' We also took good care of them and the whole families especially when it was needed.

Ptk: If you had to go back to the past, would you come up with the same decision?

JT: Sure....the only way out for the family.

Ptk: Besides deep sadness from losing a few family members, what made you feel most devastated?

JT: It was when our kid brother was killed in a car accident. Then my big sis and I cried every night. He was our hope who was to take over the family business and I was thinking I could be set free. 

Ptk: Was it hard to decide to stop the fishing business? Did you cry when the last fishing boat was sold?

JT: We asked all the younger ones and no one was interested so we decided not to carry on as we (her oldest sister and her own self) were getting much older. I cried when each and every boat was sold. I saw them being built from scratch and bonded with all.

Ptk: Since the business was sold and you helped your younger ones to set up a successful restaurant/apartment business, what are the 3 things you've been doing for yourself?

JT: 1. travels 2. spending as wished 3. ready for others to depend on.

I learned so many lessons especially about family values, leadership, sacrifice, hard work, and selflessness. What stands out for you ka?

Cheers to Jae Tid, the kind and big hearted elder I fully respect ka.

Arrival of Chat GPT5 for Learning and Life (2)

 Morning ka. Let me share two more sets of ideas and will offer my own thoughts too.

The second was from Khun เอ๋ นิ้วกลม Roundfinger! He looks at the influence and impacts of AI to human life mak ka.

Some of you may have read or heard about ‘The Anxious Generation’, one popular book that points out that in the era of social media, both younger and older generations have much less ‘life experience in the real world’. Another crucial issue worth considering is the algorithm effects that lead us all to fall into some form of ‘trends’ as we’re trapped into the circle of similar thinking and ways. It’s much harder to have some unique learning to be different from others.

He proposes that we need to know our own selves and look at life with key questions like, ‘what is it? what do we want? and how to live a meaningful life?’ We need to be bold to learn about other matters away from what we are used to doing, be calm and focused to review ourselves, and be mindful not to go along with marketing tricks.

The last and related one was from Khun Tonson (Santitarn Sathirathai) who looks at where we can choose to stand in the era of AI.

 
He defines them into 4 types: AI landlords (owners of the new world), The Cyborgs (Using AI to grow further from continuous learning), Service Professionals (those in ‘human touch’ jobs like nurses, childhood teachers) that could be disrupt eventually, and The Displaced (those affected by nerf to be completely out of the economic system)
(if it’s nerf Khun Tonson is using, my copilot says it’s the acronym of Neural Radiance Fields -- A cutting-edge technique in computer vision and graphics that could potentially reduce manual modeling work)

He stresses the types our country wishes to choose and what to do in addition to reskill/upskill systems for more to be in the ‘cyborg’ stand so we won’t be pushed into the third and especially the fourth, which would decrease sustainability sharply.

My brief views ka:
- I’m very proud Thailand has leading intellects we can lean on for updated knowledge and insights.
- We aren’t so aware or threatened by the lightning development of AI and so we see that education is far behind what it’s aimed to offer to our people of all generations.
- While we need to be more humanistic in using AI, we must learn about the dark and bright sides of AI to use it wisely.
- Life with AI makes it a real ‘MUST’ to think much more deeply than before. The materialistic world that admires bright brains for money and power. On one hand, we need to have sound technical/specialization skills. On the other end, we need to learn to know ourselves fast, crystalize about life and how to lead it with purposes as decent human beings ka.
- Continue learning and sharing now from our own selves, families, and communities ka.

Any comments mai ka?

Arrival of Chat GPT5 for Learning and Life (1)

Hello all, Hope you’re enjoying your slow Monday with light traffic outside kaaa!

I’d like to touch on Chat GPT5, which has been ‘the talk of the town’ about its intelligence that is equivalent to doctoral level people. My points aren’t about how smart since I haven’t tried and I only use the free version still ka.

What triggered my curiosity gland was the morning Chat GPT5 was introduced because I got to read several articles and these are what I wish to share ka.

Let me start from Dr. PP ‘Pat Pataranutaporn’ who got his doctorate from MIT working at MIT Media Lab. He’s now an MIT professor and been working with OpenAI too. (You may recall I wrote about him a few years ago after watching his discussion with K. Suthichai Yoon and I was so very impressed ka.)

- Love his strong principles and ideas about the roles of AI as he has said much earlier to have the proper development way, with close consideration about human behaviors. He wants AI to help us become better humans. He’s been studying its negative impacts like "Addictive Intelligence". It’s great to learn how those deeply addicted will be manipulated into the wrong paths to cause mental health, isolation, and suicide, and how prevention can be in the picture.

- His papers have been impactful at the policy level in California as it’s cited with the AI policy to ensure the safeguard of mental health.

- OpenAI team is using their studies to develop some surveillance systems to monitor risk factors with a checkin system if users appear to be far too addicted.

https://mit-serc.pubpub.org/pub/iopjyxcx/release/2

- The most important dimension for people to live their lives amid the rapid changes is to practice how to crystalize knowledge, experiences, and observations to become ‘philosophy of life’ (my own wording) as sound foundations for us to uphold and stay true to meaningful values
Accordingly, being able to question wisely and research to get quality responses must be high on our learning agenda to retain ‘human intelligence’ with continuous development to pursue the ‘truth’. Humans will have extensive knowledge to share and explore further.

- He cited Angela Duckworth’s views that teachers will be more important to construct and hold safe space for learners to learn with less distractions.

From Nong PP's sharing, I think it's a must for our education community to pay much closer attention with sharp, meaningful, future-oriented strategies and serious actions at both macro and micro levels for the older generations to understand and join hands with younger ones to shape a better and safer world through our 'learning space' available ka.

I'll write more soon so this message won't be too long ka.