NPT’s ‘Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s & Dementia’ Premieres June 27

An estimated 5 million people in the U.S. are living with some form of dementia. Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia, the seventh documentary in Nashville Public Television’s NPT Reports: Aging Matters series, examines the impact these diseases are having on individuals, families and communities.

Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia premieres Monday, June 27, 2016 at 9 p.m. on NPT. The documentary highlights personal stories of people who are living with dementia and includes comments from their care partners and insight from leading experts in dementia. The documentary also examines the heavy burden of the costs associated with the disease ‒ whether financial, physical or psychological ‒ and looks at innovative ways of meeting the challenges of dementia care.

A packed and rapt audience watched an advance screening of the documentary recently at FiftyForward Knowles and then participated in a discussion featuring panelists Quiteka “Teka” Moten, manager of programs and education, Alzheimer’s Association; Sally Wood, who has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and is currently living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI); Dr. William Petrie, director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s outpatient geriatric psychiatry clinic; and John Mansfield, whose late mother attended FiftyForward’s Adult Day Services. Though many poignant and sobering points came up, there were also moments of humor and examples of resilience.

Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia was produced by Mary Makley and is her third documentary in the series. Makley previously produced Aging Matters: The New Old Age, and Aging Matters: End of Life. Makley was also executive producer and producer of NPT’s award-winning Children’s Health Crisis documentary series.

The NPT Reports: Aging Matters series is hosted by Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Kathy Mattea. Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia is made possible by the generous support of Cigna-HealthSpring, The West End Home Foundation, The HCA Foundation and the Jeanette Travis Foundation. Additional support provided by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Jackson National Life Insurance Company.

Additional broadcast times for Aging Matters: Living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia are below; the documentary will also be available for online viewing on our website, wnpt.org.

• Wednesday, June 29, at 9 a.m. on NPT2
• Friday, July 8, at 9 p.m. on NPT
• Thursday, June 30, at 2 p.m. on NPT2
• Thursday, July 14, at 11 p.m. on NPT
• Saturday, July 23, at 9 p.m. on NPT2
• Sunday, July 24, at 5 p.m. on NPT2

About Aging Matters: NPT Reports: Aging Matters is a major initiative designed to open a community-based conversation about what older citizens in Middle Tennessee need to optimize their quality of life and what the community needs to do to prepare for a coming explosion in our aging population. Over the course of several years, NPT has focused on issues such as caregiving, finances, end-of-life issues, dementia and Alzheimer’s through documentaries, televised town halls or panel discussions, Aging Matters updates, community engagement conversations, a project website, interactive online screenings and DVD distribution.