
Kerry mom raises an impressive €6k for Kerry Mental Health Association through skydive
Carley's daughters, Sophie and Emma, proudly cheered her on, while her husband Dawid and her daughter's godfather, Oskar, also participated in the skydiving event in County Offaly on June 18.
Carley, who works as a staff nurse in mental health in Kerry, shared: 'It was a terrifying experience, especially the initial fall from the plane, but my skydive partner was calm and helped me through the challenge. When the initial jump of Father's Day was postponed, I didn't hesitate when offered the next available date three days later so that I could fulfil the commitment to complete the skydive. Overall, I am most grateful to everyone who donated money and to my family, friends and colleagues for their support. Every donation will make a difference to the lives of people who may be struggling with their mental health, their families and carers.'
Kerry Mental Health Association offers support to individuals in Kerry dealing with mental health issues, as well as their families and carers, through befriending services and by funding educational and therapeutic community programs.
John Drummey, General Manager of Kerry Mental Health Association, commented: 'Congratulations to Carley for showing such courage to make the Leap for Life. We are grateful to her and everyone who donated to the fundraiser for their support. The funds will contribute to improving the mental health services available in Kerry, making a tangible difference in the lives of those affected by mental health issues.'
The Association's next major fundraising initiative is the annual #TieDayFriday campaign, taking place across the county on World Mental Health Day, Friday October 10.
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Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Exercise and socialising can help people at risk of dementia, large-scale study finds
A combination of healthy activities including exercise , nutritious diet, computer brain games and socialising can improve cognitive performance in people at risk for dementia , according to a large new US study. The study, conducted in five locations across the US over two years, is the biggest randomised trial to examine whether healthy behaviours protect brain health. 'It confirms that paying attention to things like physical activity and vascular risk factors and diet are all really important ways to maintain brain health,' said Dr Kristine Yaffe, an expert in cognitive ageing at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. The results were presented laste week at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto and published in the journal JAMA. READ MORE The study involved 2,111 people, aged 60 to 79, from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. None were cognitively impaired. All had sedentary lifestyles, suboptimal diets and two other dementia risk factors, such as a family history of cognitive decline and high blood pressure. [ Alzheimer's: 'I've lost my friend and my companion,' says Úna Crawford O'Brien of fellow Fair City actor Bryan Murray Opens in new window ] Half of the participants followed a structured programme. They were prescribed a healthy diet, socially engaging activities, and a weekly regimen of eight exercise sessions and three sessions of computerised cognitive training. They attended 38 meetings with facilitators and fellow participants. The study is the biggest randomised trial to examine whether healthy behaviours protect brain health. Photograph: Getty Images The other participants followed a self-guided programme. They were given educational materials and resources, and were regularly encouraged to engage in healthy behaviours. They attended six team meetings during the study. Cognitive scores for both groups improved considerably, with the high-intensity group improving somewhat more than the other group. 'The structured intervention had an extra benefit over and above the self-guided,' said Laura Baker, a professor of gerontology, geriatrics and internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and a principal investigator of the study. Still, the study left many questions unanswered. We should have more aggressive targeting of interventions for people who have lower cognition, who are more at risk, and less intense or less expensive interventions for those with higher cognition — Kaarin Anstey Dr Lon Schneider, an Alzheimer's expert at the University of Southern California and a member of the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, was impressed that 'both groups improved quite significantly'. But he noted that the difference in performance between the high-intensity and self-guided groups was 'very small', raising questions about how beneficial an intensive programme truly was. It was also unclear how much of the cognitive improvement reflected a 'practice effect', a common phenomenon whereby participants learn to do better on assessments simply by taking them several times, Schneider and other experts said. 'This does not demonstrate that any of the lifestyle changes in and of themselves, or the combination of them, is responsible for this level of improvement,' Schneider said. 'Or that it is necessarily related to neurodegeneration or Alzheimer's disease.' The results cannot be compared with the general population, as the study did not include a group that received no intervention. 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[ Dementia diagnosis 'a very lonely experience at first': advocacy group calls for counselling support Opens in new window ] 'One of the big questions is how much do you need to do, and what's cost-effective,' said Kaarin Anstey, director of the Ageing Futures Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia. 'If we only have very intensive interventions only a few people can afford, that's not actually going to address the bigger issue of population ageing and lots of people developing cognitive impairment.' The study, called US POINTER, was modelled after the first large randomised trial of lifestyle changes, called FINGER and conducted in Finland a dozen years ago. That study's intensive group showed 25 per cent greater cognitive improvement than a group receiving minimal intervention. The goal was to 'see if it can work' in a more diverse nation with different health and lifestyle issues, Baker said. The participants lived in North Carolina, Rhode Island, northern California, Houston and Chicago. More than two-thirds were women and 31 per cent were from racial or ethnic minority groups. Most had first-degree relatives with memory loss, and 30 per cent had the APOE4 gene mutation, which increases Alzheimer's risk. All of those subgroups experienced the same degree of cognitive improvement. Most people participated for the full two years, an indication that they were highly motivated whether or not they received intensive supervision. The study found that participants who started with lower cognitive scores benefited more. Photograph: Getty Images Phyllis Jones (66) of Aurora, Illinois, enrolled partly because her mother and grandmother had suffered from vascular dementia. Before the study, she said, stress from being laid off from a software engineering position and other job difficulties sent her to the emergency room with blurry vision and a racing heart. 'I was in really bad shape,' Jones said. Participating in the structured intervention 'woke me up'. At first, just 10 minutes of aerobics was exhausting, but she now exercises daily and has lost 30lb, she said. Buoyed by social support from the peer meetings, she found a new job as a software tester. She befriended another participant, Patty Kelly (81). They encouraged each other, and Kelly overhauled her own diet, sharply limiting sweets, cheese and fried food. Both women perceived some cognitive benefit, although they have not been told their scores. Jones felt more able to plan home projects and follow messaging chains at work. Kelly, who retired from a non-profit serving homeless families, said her driving had improved. 'I don't run into the side of the garage any more,' she said. The computer brain games were 'the hardest thing for us to get on board with', Jones said. That was true for other participants, too, Baker said. 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Memory initially improved in both groups, but then declined, with no significant difference in the groups' ultimate memory scores. Memory loss is a core Alzheimer's symptom, Yaffe noted, so cognitive improvements in the trial were likely 'less related to Alzheimer's disease and more related to vascular changes in the brain'. The researchers will analyse blood, brain scans and other data to see if the activities spurred brain changes, reductions in Alzheimer's-related proteins or other biological factors, Snyder said. The US Alzheimer's Association will spend $40 million to follow the participants and help communities adopt locally tailored programmes. 'We now need to translate this and to turn brain health interventions into public health outcomes and solutions,' Snyder said. – This article originally appeared in The New York Times .


Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
Kerry mom raises an impressive €6k for Kerry Mental Health Association through skydive
Although poor weather delayed her original Father's Day jump in June by three days, the mental health nurse from Ardfert, County Kerry, remained committed to her goal. Carley's daughters, Sophie and Emma, proudly cheered her on, while her husband Dawid and her daughter's godfather, Oskar, also participated in the skydiving event in County Offaly on June 18. Carley, who works as a staff nurse in mental health in Kerry, shared: 'It was a terrifying experience, especially the initial fall from the plane, but my skydive partner was calm and helped me through the challenge. When the initial jump of Father's Day was postponed, I didn't hesitate when offered the next available date three days later so that I could fulfil the commitment to complete the skydive. Overall, I am most grateful to everyone who donated money and to my family, friends and colleagues for their support. Every donation will make a difference to the lives of people who may be struggling with their mental health, their families and carers.' Kerry Mental Health Association offers support to individuals in Kerry dealing with mental health issues, as well as their families and carers, through befriending services and by funding educational and therapeutic community programs. John Drummey, General Manager of Kerry Mental Health Association, commented: 'Congratulations to Carley for showing such courage to make the Leap for Life. We are grateful to her and everyone who donated to the fundraiser for their support. The funds will contribute to improving the mental health services available in Kerry, making a tangible difference in the lives of those affected by mental health issues.' The Association's next major fundraising initiative is the annual #TieDayFriday campaign, taking place across the county on World Mental Health Day, Friday October 10.


The Irish Sun
24-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
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