PODCASTHON + ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION = WORLDWIDE AWARENESS 💜

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie Rogers (00:06):
No one ever said life is easy, but I believe by
giving yourself permission, youwill find you have more control
over your life than you realize.
I'm Julie.
I hope you will join me bytaking responsibility for
yourself, by only controllingthe things you can and letting
go of the things that you can't.
By doing this, you will havediscovered the secret to having

(00:31):
happy, healthy and morefulfilling relationships.
This is Nearest and DearestPodcast.
I'm Julie Rogers and you arelist ening to season four,
episode two Podcasthon +Alzheimer's Association =

(00:55):
Worldwide Awareness.
So I was invited to participatein this global effort by the
world's largest podcast charityinitiative movement called
Podcasthon.
The visionary co-founders,Jeremie Mani, a French
businessman with over 20 yearsof experience in the digital

(01:15):
industry, began reflecting onhow he could use his skills to
make a meaningful impact.
He wanted to create somethingthat would mobilize thousands of
people for a greater cause.
Yves Delnatte, a seasonedbusinessman and investor with a

(01:37):
background in businessdevelopment, whose journey has
been marked by a commitment toleveraging businesses as a force
for good, led him to co-foundalong with Jeremie.
They came together to buildPodcasthon as a volunteer-driven

(01:58):
initiative aimed at uniting thepower of podcasting with the
needs of charities.
Because traditional fundraisingmethods like charity galas,
marathons and auctions havetheir limits due to needing

(02:18):
large budgets, exclusive accessor short-lived engagement.
This reality motivated them toseek another way for charities
around the world to reach newaudiences and create long-term
connections.
Podcasthon started in 2023 with300 French-speaking podcasters.

(02:45):
It grew to over 400 in 2024,and now it is expanding
worldwide.
Their dream is to seePodcasthon become a global
tradition, uniting thousands ofpodcasters in dozens of
languages each year.

(03:07):
Quote "we believe thatpodcasting for good should be
more than a buzzword.
It should be a movement.
By leveraging technology,storytelling and community
engagement, we hope to inspiremillions of listeners to care,

(03:30):
to act and to make a difference,one podcast at a time.
End quote.
The goal is to convince as manypodcasters as possible,
regardless of their language, todedicate an episode on their

(03:51):
show to a charitableorganization of their choice.
By doing so, they are promotingcharitable engagement in all

(04:15):
its forms all around the world.
I'm thrilled to be one podcastout of 1,600 podcasters from 45
countries that have made acommitment to showcase our
personal charities with the hopeof educating, connecting and a
sense of community that offerslight and love.
As you can tell from the titleof this episode, the Alzheimer's
Association is my personalchoice for Podcasthon.

(04:40):
I know some of you know my storybut for those who don't, I want
to take a moment to share withyou why I got involved with the
Alzheimer's Association.
I lost my beautiful mom toAlzheimer's in 2019.
She battled this horrific,fatal disease for over four

(05:02):
years.
She was 84 when she passed.
My family, along with our mom,watched helplessly as she
slipped away from herself, herfamily and her friends.
It wasn't until my family hadto make the gut-wrenching

(05:22):
decision to place her intomemory care that I learned more
about the Alzheimer'sAssociation Central New York's
chapter.
I was grateful for my firstmeeting in the Samaritan Keep
home in Watertown, along withother caregivers who wanted to

(05:46):
know more about this disease.
I received valuable information.
A guest speaker, a daughter whospoke about her caregiving
journey that she experiencedwith her own mom, helped connect
me in realizing I am not alone.

(06:08):
From then on, I would reach outto my local chapter whenever I
felt the need to vent my ownemotions or inquire about other
ways I could connect with othercaregivers in my own community
in a private, non-judgmentalsetting.

(06:30):
It was a lifeline for me.
Fast forward to just a couple ofyears ago.
I was ready to share mycaregiving story.
As a volunteer for theAlzheimer's Association, I have
done walks to raise money forthis cause, and as an ambassador

(06:53):
for AIM Alzheimer's ImpactMovement, which fights for
funding in Washington DC throughlegislation for the rights of
loved ones and caregivers whoare battling this fatal disease.
I'm also a communityrepresentative that attends
local community events, whichallows me to raise awareness of

(07:18):
the free association programs,provide basic information and
connect people with services intheir own communities.
I want to honor the memory ofmy beautiful mom by continuing
the fight to end Alzheimer's andall other forms of dementia, so

(07:42):
that no person, family orcommunity would ever have to
endure watching their loved onesbattle this horrendous and
fatal disease.
I would like to welcome JessicaDesRosiers, Director of

(08:04):
Programs for Alzheimer'sAssociation Central New York
Chapter, located in Syracuse.
Thank you Jessica, forparticipating in this special
episode to chat with me today.
Would you please share how yourcareer journey led you to work
for this wonderful nonprofit?

(08:28):
Sure a little fact is that I'veactually lived and worked in
Syracuse and Central New Yorkmore specifically for my entire
childhood and adult life.
So definitely a nativeSyracusan and just really love
and have a strong passion forthe community that I live in
myself and want to help thepeople that I interact with and
that are part of my owncommunity.

(08:49):
So I previously had anotherlong stint at a nonprofit for
the previous 17 years before Icame to the Alzheimer's
Association.
Same thing doing more communityengagement work, a little bit
of health like health systemswork, working with our local

(09:09):
hospitals to really just lettheir patients know that there's
more that communityorganizations can do and that
there are lots of resources outthere in the community.
So really my passion A isnonprofit, because I love just
doing more meaningful charitablework but also helping the
community that myself I live in.

(09:29):
That's amazing.
I can understand wanting towork for your own community,
that you are part of growing upyour whole life, and for you to
give back like that is a realtreasure for the community, so
thank you for that.
I myself grew up in NorthernNew York, lived in Connecticut
for 20 years, down in Georgiafor about four and then came
back home to the North country,so I you know it's my favorite

(09:52):
place on earth.

Jessica DesRosiers (09:54):
Except for you know, December, January,
February.

Yeah, which is why I'm in Puerto Rico for the
winter.
I'm very blessed with myhusband, so I understand that,
Jessica, but I'm always lookingforward to coming home in May.
So it's just, the summer goesby too fast.
So the mission statement forAlzheimer's Association is,
quote the Alzheimer'sAssociation leads the way to end
Alzheimer's and all otherdementia by accelerating global

(10:20):
research, driving risk reductionand early detection and
maximizing quality care andsupport.
How does this statementcoincide with your role, Jessica
?

Sure.
My role really isn't asimportant as the 19 staff that I
have out in the 14 counties weserve.
So they're the real, trueheroes, you know, heroes doing
the boots on the ground work.
They're out there every day,driving all the way up, you know
, to Canada and the Northcountry there, all the way down
to the PA border and BroomeCounty, reaching as many people

(10:57):
in whatever community we can getinto to really raise awareness.
That's our main goal.
This, you know, last fiscalyear and coming up is that we
want more people to know weexist.
Because what we do hear fromtime to time is people say I
wish I knew about you sooner orI wish I knew about you when I
was going through it.
So we don't want to hear thosestatements anymore.

(11:19):
So we're trying to be asvisible in every community, big
or small, that we can, and wehave 19 amazing staff doing that
truly, truly impactful andmeaningful work.

Oh, absolutely.
And it's boots on the groundthat are out there in every
community, whether it's rural ora city or a town, village,
because everybody, this diseasehas affected all of those
communities.
Absolutely, because here's thereality nearly 7 million
Americans are living withAlzheimer's and over 11 million

(11:52):
caregivers to help them.
This number is projected torise to nearly 13 million by
2050.
The estimate worldwide is 55million.
That number comes from theWorld Health Organization.
With these realities, can youshare why it is so important to

(12:14):
educate not only the public butalso educate our primary doctors
, who are the first doctor thatwe all go to see when
something's wrong with us, withthe tools to diagnose dementia?

It's a great great question, Julie, because
really we're in the era oftreatment right now, and what
that means is that we have theseamazing drugs now available
that are disease modifying.
So what we need to do is let ourcommunities know, but also our
health care providers know, thatthese treatments are available,

(12:50):
but they're available for thosein the early stages, and what
that means for people, you know,like primary care providers or
neurologists or gerontologists,is that we've got to get
diagnosing sooner.
So we've got to get, you know,the early cognitive screenings.
We've got to have people bemore aware that they should be
asking their provider, you know,to do a cognitive screening or,

(13:11):
if they recognize changes, tobring that up, because the
earlier it's recognized anddiagnosed, these treatments are
then available.
So we are, like I said, in theera of treatment, because we
have these disease modifyingdrugs that are not a cure yet.
They are to delay theprogression of the disease.
So that way we have more timeand I think with that time we in

(13:34):
fact will make some reallygreat strides with finding out a
little bit more about thisdisease.

Oh, absolutely.
Like for my mother.
When I intervened as one of hercaregivers back in 2016, and I
went to her local doctor withher, he was just like at a loss,
was like there's nothing thatcan be done.
You know, so we have come sofar, just even in these years.
So I'm really, really proud ofthe association and the

(14:01):
scientists and all the donationsthat people give to help make
that happen, to start being inthe in the age of treatment.

You're so right, like that's why we do
those walks, you know, to raisemoney, because it goes to
research, it goes to being ableto find these things out and
directly impact our localcommunity.

Absolutely.
Every dollar makes a differencefor that.
What types of services andresources does Alzheimer's offer
to those who need support,whether you are a loved one
dealing with this disease orcaregiver?

So this is one of my proud moments to be
able to talk about all of theprograms and resources that we
have because they're absolutely100% free.
So everything we have is freeto both professionals.
So you might be employees at anorganization, a long-term care
community, or just communitymembers, and so we kind of have

(14:57):
these three buckets of programsand services that we offer.
So we have community educationand that runs the gamuts from
everything about healthylifestyle living, prevention,
but then we can get a littledeeper into communication
behaviors living with thedisease.

(15:17):
Some other things that weeducate our professional side of
the workforce, so we do someeducation for first responders,
knowing that they may come orget a call to a home with
somebody living with the diseaseand not quite know how to
interact with the individual.
They might be angry, they mightbe agitated.
So if our first responders area little bit more aware and
educated, I think that wholeexperience will be better.

(15:39):
So I love that we have thataspect.
We also have this other side ofthe work we do that is for the
caregiver, because, as youmentioned, those statistics,
that astounding number ofcaregivers, and I think that's
only going to grow due to theaging population that we have.

(16:00):
So we have support groups forcaregivers, we have one-on-one
consultations that they justhave questions, they can talk to
one of our care consultants,and then we also do something
called early stage socialengagements and really what that
is is I like to call them ouradult field trips, but it's just
a time where we're out incommunity apple picking, we've
gone to museums I know in thespring they're going to a local
ice cream shop so it's justbeing in community with others

(16:24):
and for those few hours, nothaving to think about being a
caregiver, not having to thinkabout the disease, just truly
enjoying one another, because wedo know that the worst thing is
isolation and no one should besuffering alone.
So we want people to know thatthere's support out there and I
hope that's what our programsand services bring to people

(16:46):
that are either a caregiver orliving with the disease.

Yes, absolutely, and I can attest to that.
I didn't really know about theAlzheimer's Association until my
family was dealing withnavigating.
You know our roles and what washappening to our mom and I did
get to use that support systemthat they offered and the
education on how.
What is happening so it reallyhelped myself and my family, so

(17:17):
I love that.
That is still one of the maingoals is to deal with to feel
that you're not alone.
So that goes right into thisnext question.
Can you explain how calling thefree, confidential, 24-7
helpline, which is1-800-272-3900, can assist
anyone who needs help, no matterwhat time of day or night it is

(17:42):
?

Yes, absolutely Glad you asked that.
I like to tell this littlestory because I'm relatively
still new to the organization.
I've been here just two years.
But when I first heard you know, make sure you mention the
1-800 number.
It's on all of our material Iwas kind of like it was a little
standoffish because generallyconsumers as a whole, we see an
800 number and we're like, oh,you know, I don't know where

(18:05):
that's going.
It's not, it's not local.
Am I going to get a, you know,an actual human?
Am I going to get a machine?
I will tell you, 100% in fact,that you do get a live human
being, that they are actually alicensed social worker and we
can accommodate over 200languages spoken.
So I love that fact.

(18:27):
We know that.

That's so crazy 200 languages.

When I heard that I was like, oh my goodness
, because you think, oh, we justneed Spanish and maybe you know
Mandarin and things like that.
But we have a lot of immigrantsand we have some new Americans.
I know in Syracuse, on thenorth side, we have a very large
new American population.
You know, like Swahili is themain language spoken.
Who would think that we mightbe?

(18:50):
We can help them.
So definitely call the 1-800number, and the reason we
promote that it's also 24 hours,so the disease doesn't take a
break, and there could be amoment of crisis at two in the
morning.
Unfortunately, our offices areclosed at that hour.
But the 1-800 number hassomebody there that you can
speak with.
It might just be to speak toyou know an actual voice.

(19:13):
It might be because you have aquestion about your loved one at
that moment.
So please, please, we'd love tokind of tout it from the
rooftop that it's a real number,you speak to people and we hear
so many great stories of peoplethat have actually used it and
how it really made a difference.

Absolutely.
I love that and it does make adifference.
I myself have called thatnumber before, so for sure.
I want to give you a shout out,Jessica, because I think the
important work that you havedone, along with your whole
staff at Central New York.
But as the Senior Director ofPrograms, you coordinate the

(19:49):
community and resource eventsaround Central New York and the
North Country as well as hostthings like the Dementia Care
Conference at Syracuse which wasOnCenter last year.
The number of different vendorswas 45, which set a new record
for the greatest number ofvendors to attend in the history

(20:09):
of the convention, which ishuge.
Also, the Alzheimer'sAssociation of Central New York
made a monetary donation to aidOswego County Opportunities last
winter, helping to fulfilltheir seniors' home-delivered
meals program.
As we know, during the harshwinter months it can be hard for
clients to get to the stores.

(20:30):
The clients received a blizzardbag First.
What was in those bags and howdo these outreach initiatives
make a positive difference inall of our local communities?

This was a really great opportunity that we
had.
We have a great strongconnection with Oswego County
and we had heard that they had afantastic program already
existing.
So we didn't want to kind ofrock the boat.
We just wanted to help and sayyou have such a need and you're
kind of only able to help Xamount of people, but if we were

(21:04):
able to support that, could youreach more?
And they said, absolutely.
So we just really we gave themsome funds that would allow them
to reach even more people withthese blizzard bags and really
what's in there is somenon-perishable foods, some
things like a hat or a glove,also some, like I know they put
some puzzles in.

(21:24):
So the point being that in thenorth country region, as you
know, there's some really remoteplaces and then we also get
pounded with snow.
So sometimes some folks aren'table to actually get out to go
to the store or have thenecessary resources that they
may.
So it's really great thesevolunteer drivers go out and

(21:45):
make these deliveries and itreally does bring a smile to
people's faces.
So we were so happy to be partof that and I'm going to say
we're going to do it again.
You know this coming.
We kind of get ready in thefall for the winter season, so
we're really excited about that.
You also touched upon ourcaregiver conference.
So that's coming up in May.

(22:05):
We did have it at the On Centerlast year and what we kind of
learned is that venue is verylarge and I think being in
downtown Syracuse with all ofthe construction on 81 and
construction downtown it mightbe a little intimidating for us
folks.
So we did move it to thesuburbs at the Doubletree Hotel
in East Syracuse.
We've done many events there soyou know, right on site parking

(22:27):
, very easy to get to.
So we're really excited aboutthat.
And you mentioned the vendors.
Surprisingly, I guess I didn'tsee the or think I knew the
impact that that would have.
At the conference last year Iwas like, oh yes, we have
vendors.
It's great to let people knowabout resources in the community
and it gets them out there.
But we had two strategic timesduring the conference that we

(22:50):
kind of left a nice big breakfor our caregivers to go out and
chat with those 45 folks.
And I would just look aroundand see such meaningful
conversations happening.
People talking to a gal at M&TBank learning about setting up
trusts and different things withsavings accounts.
You would see someone talk tosomebody from a long-term care
facility and what that lookedlike and how do I plan for that.

(23:12):
So it was really I think it wassomething I didn't expect to
happen, but we saw suchmeaningful things with that that
we said we have to do it againthis year.
So we've invited all those samefolks back.
We're very close to filling uptoo, so that's exciting.

(23:37):
Yes! Thank you for sharing allof that, and at the end of this
episode in my show notes andlinks, I will have that
information there for people toyou know, vendors or for people
that want to attend it.
So I think it's a greatopportunity for people to really
see what's out there forsupport and I just love that.
So I'm so glad you gave us somuch information about it.

(23:59):
One of my own personal goals asan advocate and a volunteer for
Alzheimer's Association is todestroy the stigma around
dementia.
I know education is the key indoing that and now that we are
in that age of treatment forAlzheimer's and other forms of
dementia, can you discuss how,by breaking down misinformation,

(24:21):
stereotypes that are not true,how that will lead loved ones
and families to not be afraid totalk to their doctors, their
spouses, their families andtheir friends if they are
starting to experience somememory loss or not feeling like
themselves?
Absolutely! Great point, because that's
really what's going to bepivotal in us making such a

(24:43):
large impact is getting peopleto A talk about it more right.
I know growing up and maybe youas well people just assumed
that that was something wasgoing to happen when they aged.
It was part of the naturalaging process.
I've heard people say it'scalled old timer's disease.
Well, that's not true.
It's definitely.

(25:04):
We don't want to just wait andlet it happen to us.
We want to educate ourselves.
We're learning more aboutprevention, meaning reduction in
your risk through healthylifestyles, so things that would
normally reduce heart diseaseand diabetes.
Same thing is we're finding isreducing our risk for
Alzheimer's and all otherdementia.

(25:30):
So getting that knowledge firstand not being afraid to talk
about it.
You mentioned stigma and again,I think the world we used to
live in is we didn't talk aboutit because people were ashamed
or they just felt like thereisn't a cure.
I'm not going to lie, but thereare things available to help
now, so we want to shout it fromthe rooftop.
We want our doctors to know.

(25:51):
We want our communities to knowthat this is nothing to be
ashamed about.
There's help and resources.
We're seeing more and morepeople being diagnosed younger
and younger and this disease washappening to younger folks, but
they were not being diagnosedper se until later stages or

(26:11):
years of their life.
So if we can get on top of itearlier, people are aware.
They're asking questions.
I think.
To me that helps reduce thestigma.
Something that people don't, Ijust want to sneak this in, is
Alzheimer's is, the foundationitself, it's fairly new in the
landscape of what I call the bigthree.
You've got heart disease,cancer, diabetes.

(26:34):
They've been around for a lotlonger, so we have those larger
cures and treatments.
People are proud to wear theirpink breast cancer shirts.
We want that to be us.
We're just a little bit further, you know, behind because we're
still relatively new.
So you know we're seeing morepurple out there and we see a
lot of places that are, you know, painting the town purple or

(26:56):
wear purple day.
So that's where we're at.
You know we're getting thereand we just need more and more
people to talk about it.

Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought that all up
because it is it's it is kind ofnew compared to these other you
know, heart disease and cancersthat have been around forever
and and they've had medicine andsupport groups.
And yeah, Alzheimer's isnothing to.
I would try to tell my motherthat, like there's nothing to be
ashamed of, you didn't do this.
This is a disease, mom, youknow, but at that point she was

(27:26):
just, you know, she was scaredand she just didn't understand
what was happening to her.
So that's why I advocate,that's why I, you know, it's so
near and dear to my heart and Ijust, I just don't want any
family to have to experiencewhat my family had to do losing
our mom that way.

(27:46):
You know, I lost my dad to lungcancer and he was a smoker and
that's what happened to him.
He didn't get to enjoy hisretirement, but he knew for the
most of his life during thatdisease what was happening and
why it was happening to him.
My mother didn't have thatluxury to know.
So education is key having moretime to do those once in a

(28:09):
lifetime trip, perhaps with yourfamily or loved ones, with your
friends, and knowing that yourfriends can still give you
support.
You know, my mother was afraidshe was shutting out her friends
because she was embarrassed.
So we know so much more aboutthis disease and I just want to
spread the word.
So that's why we're here.

Yeah, A personal passion of mine is
healthy lifestyle and I justfeel like that can do so much
for your future and yourlongevity.
So I love that we're now seeingthe connection in research to
healthy living modificationsearly on at risk reduction.
So I'm kind of like that's myplatform.

(28:50):
I'm taking it and running withit, because I want to get to the
20, the 30 and 40 year olds andsay listen, you can do
something now.
So just you know living ahealthy lifestyle, and it's not.
You don't have to diet and runmarathons, we're just saying,
you know, not smoking, watchingyour drinking, moving more just
that's going to impact yourbrain health and we've never

(29:10):
talked about it in that way.
I love that platform and I 100%agree with you.
So can you share more publicprograms that are coming to the
communities in Central andNorthern New York this year?
Absolutely.
Like I mentioned before, wehave a fantastic team of staff
that are so passionate aboutdelivering these education

(29:32):
programs.
I'll speak a little bit to theNorth Country.
We have a program manager here,Vicky.
That's her area, so she servesOswego, Jefferson, St Lawrence
and Lewis, and I did mentionthat we were speaking and she's
like oh, I love Julie!

I love Vicky! VickyShe's awesome.
I got to know her.

She's perfect for that area because
you know it's relatively tightknit and they've always had a
lack of services in the Northcountry.
So she's made it her mission.
Since she's been here over twoyears and I'm going to tell you
the relationship she's formed,the trust with the community.
Her energy is amazing.
We really have grown in thatfour-county region to offer as

(30:15):
many programs as possible, so weare just adding more and more
every day.
Obviously, when the weatherbreaks here she pretty much
lives in her car up there, butit's been a rough winter.

Yeah, yeah, I know I remember last summer working
with her and at the end ofsummer too, her Subaru and how
she has it all set up foreverything and her husband's
very supportive and she's just agem for you guys to have her
and I'm privileged to workalongside with her.
Looking forward to that somemore this summer and fall.
So I really appreciate youtaking the time to share these

(30:48):
important insights, Jessica,with what the Alzheimer's
Association does for all ourcommunities, not just in New
York, but all 50 states.

You're welcome.
It was always a pleasurechatting.

Don't forget to go to my show notes and links
under this episode, fromwherever you listen to my
podcast, to find moreinformation about Podcasthon.
That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-H-O-N .
org.
And the Alzheimer's Association.

(31:23):
That's A-L-Z .
org.
There is also a link that willtake you to my email address,
julierogers atnearestanddearestpodcast.
com.
Please send me any questions,comments or if you want to share
your own story with me.

(31:44):
This season I want to focus onsharing stories that have
impacted you.
You can share your name or beanonymous.
I truly believe by speakingyour own truths will help you to
realize you are not alone.

(32:06):
The views and opinionsexpressed by Nearest and Dearest
Podcast are those of theauthors and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy orposition of Nearest and Dearest
Podcast.
Any content provided by JulieRogers or any other authors are
of their opinion.

(32:27):
They are not intended to malignany religion, ethnic group,
club, organization, company,individual or anyone or anything
.
Thank you.

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