Hello --
My name is Rich Bozanich. I was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in June 2006 at age 48.
My friend Jay Smith are co-chairs of a conference created by persons with early memory loss for persons with early memory loss.
It will take place on Saturday, October 27, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Jay and I got the idea for the conference after we met in an early stage support group in L.A. We've been planning it now for 13-plus months. And it will now happen four weeks from Saturday.
Our target audience is persons with early stage Alzheimer's, early onset, mild cognitive impairment, and other dementias. But we also want care partners and health professionals to attend so they can hear persons with early memory loss speaking in their own voices.
The morning session will feature keynote speaker David Shenk, author of "The Forgetting," and Dr. Gary Small of UCLA. There will be a question-and-answer session with Mr. Shenk and Dr. Small.
After a break, there will be the first break-out session. Participants will be able to choose from eight workshops. The eight workshops are:
1. Communications and Relationships
2. Complementary Therapies
3. Current and Future Treatments
4. Legal and Financial Issues
5. Living and Coping With Early Memory Loss
6. Partnering With Your Doctor
7. Redefining Early Stage Dementia
8. Stimulating the Brain

The workshops will have a faciliator/moderator and feature panelists with early memory loss, many of whom are persons with early onset. The first workshop session is from 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. with a sitdown luncheon at 12 noon.
The second break-out session will begin at 1 p.m. and participants will be able to attend one of the above eight workshops. After a break, at 2 p.m. there will be a panel discussion entitled, "Personal Reflections By Persons With Early Memory Loss," which will feature three persons with early stage Alzheimer's.
The afternoon will conclude with a Town Hall. In Oakland in July and in Chicago in August, the Alzheimer's Association held Town Halls where persons with early memory loss were asked to speak about the issues that concerned them. We will have the same format in L.A. at the Early Memory Loss Forum.
If you would like more information, please use this link --

Early Memory Loss Forum

You can Register by calling (323) 900-3180, or
e-mail: earlystageforum@alzlarsb.org

We hope that those who are living in the Southern California area will attend. Buses also have been arranged to bring people from Bakersfield, Orange County and the Palm Springs/Palm Desert areas.

Thank you very much.

Rich