A local company, which operates a software programme to help children with learning difficulties, has launched new software aimed at offsetting the onset and progress of Alzheimer’s disease.
James Lee, the managing director of Griffin Tuition, says this new programme targets people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, those with dementia and mild cognitive (brain function ) decline.
“Simply called ‘Memory Treatment’, it facilitates supervised distance cognitive therapy for seniors exhibiting early Alzheimer’s, dementia decline, mild brain function impairment, etc,” explains Mr Lee, who is from Newcastle and holds a BSc degree in physiology and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering.
“In addition to the memory treatment Griffin Tuition also has exclusive distribution rights in Ireland to promote ‘The Aging Well Series of Programmes’ for seniors who wish to maintain a healthy functioning brain.
“Both programmes are scientifically designed and validated computer software programmes that supervise cognitive stimulation, helping your mind to remain sharp and active, thereby providing mental support for those suffering from mild cognitive impairment (MCI ) and Alzheimer’s disease, etc allowing patients to deal with the symptoms of memory loss and cognitive decline. These programmes empower people to work effectively and efficiently within our clinic or in the comfort of their own home.
“Leveraging the power of the Web, we now have all the tools necessary to assign seniors to the programmes, providing personalised coaching services and monitoring programme compliance along with performance over time. The programmes bring together tele-medicine delivery of critically important cognitive stimulation programmes that enable, for the first time in Ireland, fully supervised distance therapy. This plays an important role in enabling seniors to stay in their homes and live more vital years. Staying in one’s home for longer not only unites a family but provides a nursing home saving of circa € 50,000 per year to the immediate family.”
“The Aging Well and Memory Treatment” programmes deliver objective performance measurements, helping in the assessment of patient cognitive decline over time. The series of software programmes are highly scalable, making it suitable for individual therapist practices and large hospital systems alike. Currently the four cognitive treatment programmes available include Cognitive Rehabilitation (TBI, stroke ), Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry (Major depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and PTSD ), Aging Well (healthy seniors, MCI ) and Memory Treatment (MCI and early Alzheimer’s disease ).”
A four minute screening test for memory problems, especially those related to ageing, dementia, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, will be available in October exclusively from Griffin Tuition.
The Memory Treatment and Ageing Well programmes operate from the company’s headquarters at NUI Galway. However, by the end of the year Griffin Tuition plan to have providers in all counties in Ireland. People interested in becoming providers or investors in the company should call James at (091 ) 589771.
Griffin Tuition, which was set up in 2005 and was previously based in Oranmore, has helped more than 300 children and teenagers through its corrective education programme FastForWord. An interactive and adaptive computer programme for children and adults wishing to address specific reading and learning difficulties such as dyslexia, Asberger’s syndrome, mild to moderate autism, etc, it is also aimed at people with general learning difficulties such as poor memories, lack of concentration, poor processing and sequencing abilities.
“We have approached corrective education from both a traditional and a computer driven approach and found that children with learning difficulties prefer the computer to traditional methods,” he says.
“FastForWord is a user friendly programme that strengthens existing neural pathways and creates new ones in the brain by interacting with computer software programmes. Their interaction is for 48 minutes a day for approximately 16 weeks at the centre here in NUIG or in the comfort of their own home. At the end of the programme the participant will have been brought up level with their peers. An added advantage and benefit of FastForWord is that the corrective results last. Participants have ranged from six to 65 years. A Fast ForWord screening is available during August and September at Griffin Tuition for €50.”
To find out more about these next generation software programmes contact Griffin Tuition at NUI Galway at (091 ) 589771. Alternately, access www.aging.fastforword.ie for further information.
