Alzheimer's in the workplace: a challenge for social work.

It is estimated that 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder (ADRD) with approximately 500,000 of these persons younger than 65. Moreover, the number of people affected by the disease will increase 350% by the middle of this century. Although research exists on organizational policies with regard to caregivers, very little is known about how organizations deal with employees themselves who show symptoms of ADRD. This article reports on a pilot study of employers' responses to dementia as it impacts both caregiving employees and employees who themselves show signs of cognitive impairment.

Empowering African American custodial grandparents.

The increase in grandparent-headed households is receiving much attention as the needs and concerns of these grandparents become more widely known. However, to the extent that services focus on the problems of this population, there is an inherent danger in overlooking their unique strengths and abilities. Empowerment training builds on these strengths to enable people to develop self-efficacy and their own problem-solving skills. In so doing, those empowered grandparents further empower the communities in which they live. This article describes an empowerment training project and its curriculum that was developed for a group of African American grandparents. The program resulted in strengthened parenting skills, and development of the participants into community peer educators.