AARP Wyoming’s Movies for Grownups To Screen “Cracked”
A new movie, “Cracked,” which follows the experiences of persons living with dementia and their families, will be screened at the Studio City Mesa Theater in Casper, Thursday, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m.
The film is free, thanks to AARP’s Casper Action Team and AARP’s Movies for Grownups program. Tickets are free but registration is required for entry. To get tickets, click on this link: https://aarp.cvent.com/MFG_Cracked_Casper_WY, or call 1-877-926-8300, and ask the operator for Movies for Grownups, Casper, Wyoming, showing of “Cracked.”
The movie, “Cracked,” sheds a new light on those living with dementia and their families from diagnosis to their new lives in long-term care. The families struggle to see beyond the disease until they come to see that each of us has cracks as a part of being human.
Following the movie will be a reception with hors d'oeuvres and a conversation around dementia with Casper Neurologist David Wheeler, MD, PhD, and Tabitha Thrasher, DO, at Mountain Plaza Assisted Living at 4154 Talon Drive.
Dementia is a focus for AARP nationally as well as in Wyoming. In June of 2018, AARP announced AARP’s Brain Health Fund is investing $60 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), which invests in research and development of breakthrough treatments for dementia. This move reflects AARP’s ongoing commitment to helping people with dementia and family caregivers, and makes AARP the single largest investor in the DDF.
More than 6 million people in the United States suffer from various types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, and those numbers are growing at an alarming rate. Based on current projections, by 2050 that number will exceed 16 million, or about 1 in 5 Americans age 65 and older.
The movie is a part of AARP’s Movies For Grownups program, which seeks to fight social isolation in those aged 50 and over. Social isolation occurs when people withdraw and become disconnected from family, friends and community. A study by professors Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Timothy Smith of Brigham Young University found that prolonged social isolation is as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is more harmful than obesity. Social isolation has been linked to higher blood pressure, greater susceptibility to the flu and other infectious diseases, and earlier onset of dementia.
For more information, contact Tanya Johnson, AARP Wyoming’s Associate State Director for Outreach and Local Advocacy at tajohnson@aarp.org.
