Alzheimer's Survey - Need Responses From Caretaker and Patient

**permission for this post has been attained from founder Peter Waite
Dear Mild or Moderate Alzheimer's Patients and Caretakers,
Hello I am an undergraduate biomedical researcher at the UC Irvine Medical
Center, asking if you can fill out my surveys (contained in the link at
the bottom) for mild or moderate Alzheimer's patients and their
caretakers. My study was approved by the Institutional Review Board on
June 10th, 2009 (IRB#2009-6884). My supervisor is Rimal Bera, M. D.
I issue these surveys in pairs- one for the caretaker and the other for
the AD patient- since I must compare your responses to assess awareness of
chronic pain. I want my results to allow others to draw meaningful
conclusions, hopefully removing some of the struggles that Alzheimer's
patients and caretakers experience every day.
These surveys take ~20 minutes to complete and there is no follow-up. I
have done my best to protect patient and caretaker privacy- I never record
the name of the patient or the caretaker, and questions are answered with
brief responses/scales/checked boxes.
Please read over the "Reminder of the qualifications" in the link below.
If applicable, proceed to the caretaker and patient surveys that follow
(both of you must be present to complete your surveys).
I will provide $20 to each caretaker-patient pair that completes the
entire survey. Please make sure to indicate, in the box at the beginning
of the survey, which means of compensation you would like. Here is the
link:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyid=LBJNN_e8afd4e9
Thank you for your consideration!

Sincerely,
Matthew Keating

Wow thank you for bringing up this idea! I cannot think of a way to redirect the $20 to a donation for Alzheimer's awareness (definitely open to suggestions), beyond simply promising that I will donate $20 to an AD society of your choosing. However I would feel comfortable sending the donation to the Washington University's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, since they offer to send a notification letter to individuals (i.e. I would verify each donation by having a notification letter sent to the respective participants). Please indicate your desire for such a donation in the first text box on the survey.

Another option is to receive my payment and subsequently make a donation on your own. Forums made possible by HealingWell.com allow for incredibly supportive feedback among AD patients and caretakers, far beyond providing opportunities to recruit participants for research (but believe me I have nothing but good intentions!). So why not reinforce this support with a small donation? Yet another option, I like how the Alzheimer's Association donor site allows you to search for your employer when you donate; certain employers will match the donation thus doubling its impact (oftentimes the minimum donation to match is $25 so I will send this amount if you indicate your intent at the beginning of your survey).

Here are the links to donate:

HealingWell.com: click on Donate at the top of your screen

Alzheimer's Association:
https://act.alz.org/site/Donation2?1760.donation=form1&idb=932446963&df_id=1760

Washington University's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center:
http://alzheimer.wustl.edu/about_Us/Donate.htm

But whatever you do, know that we will beat Alzheimer's Disease!

i believe your intentions are sincere so i have no problem with donating funds to Alzheimers society
i live in Canada and here the numbers are sky rocketing with our seniors..this is a very sad n lonely dd
no way should our elders have to go thru this with all they have done for us imho
lyn

So very well stated and so true..thank you for your interest in helping our loved ones caregivers and relatives..friends
respectfully
lyn
plz feel free to email me as well