Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s Disease Tips: When There’s an Alternate Reality
These Alzheimer’s disease tips can help when someone is experiencing an alternate reality.
Alzheimer’s disease alters someone’s mind so that memories surrounding more recent incidents are forgotten or mixed up while memories about the more distant past often continue to be intact. This might cause past years to make more sense to an individual with dementia than the present. An individual’s alternate reality can be his or her method of making sense of the present through previous recollections.
People with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia often have problems expressing themselves, and sometimes their alternate reality has more to do with a desire or a particular feeling they are trying to express than it has to do with the things they are saying.
For instance:
“When will my husband be home?” This question could possibly be more about a desire for … Read More »
Dementia Home Care Strategies: How to Respond to Hallucinations and Illusions
For family members providing dementia home care for a senior with Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia, a number of complex effects have to be very carefully handled, but perhaps the most overwhelming consist of hallucinations, illusions, and suspicions that other individuals are out to cause him problems or ill will. False perceptions such as these arise typically in the more advanced phases of progressive dementia as a result of changes within the brain. It’s essential to first recognize the reasons behind these emotions and behaviors, and to deal with the root cause.
Hallucinations/Illusions
Causes for hallucinations may perhaps be the result of a general confusion, a medicine side effect or an infection. Seek advice from the doctor to rule out medication side effects or infections, but also monitor the person’s environment.
For example:
If the person keeps hearing someone talking: Is a … Read More »
Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Tip: Dealing with Home Confusion
Like the saying goes, there’s no place like home; but what do you do when a senior loved one firmly insists on going home – when he/she already IS at home? Sadly, when caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, this is an all too common conundrum. And the confusion and plaintive yearning being conveyed are simply heartbreaking – and, if we’re truthful, aggravating.
At Hired Hands Homecare, our specially trained Alzheimer’s and dementia care team helps family members handle complex situations such as this, and we encourage trying the following to help restore peace to an unsettled senior with dementia:
Rather than rationalize, validate. Reasoning or disagreeing with someone with dementia can actually boost agitation and unrest. Even if the senior is in the exact same home she’s resided in for more than thirty years, … Read More »
How to Adapt Care Strategies Throughout the Levels of Alzheimer’s
Caring for a senior with Alzheimer’s disease can seem like attempting to solve a constantly changing puzzle. Once you determine the solution to one segment, you discover that the picture has changed, and you need to reconsider your plan of action for the next levels of Alzheimer’s.
Trying to figure out the puzzle of Alzheimer’s care demands continuous education and a group effort, including professionals specifically trained in the numerous facets of Alzheimer’s disease support. Hired Hands Homecare provides the following tips, courtesy of the Alzheimer’s Association, to help families in establishing care strategies throughout the levels of Alzheimer’s:
Early Stages: Family members can best assist a loved one with Alzheimer’s through planning together, offering a patient, calm, listening ear and memory prompts when needed. Strategies consist of:
Be a care advocate for your family member, offering emotional assistance and encouragement.
Help plan for … Read More »
Music and Seniors: These Benefits Will Have You Kicking Up Your Heels!
These days, music is more available than ever before. For those who carry smartphones or tablets with them everywhere they go, hundreds of thousands – if not tens of millions of songs – are simply a couple of touches or finger swipes away. If you are a caregiver for an older person, your smartphone can become one of the most useful tools in your possession in helping connect music and seniors. This widely circulated video clip from the Alive Inside documentary demonstrates just how tremendously effective music can be for older adults with limited abilities and dementia.
With vast musical libraries readily available from places like iTunes, Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify, and countless others, we can now find music, in many instances for no cost, in a variety of styles in mere seconds. Caregivers can ask clients or family members what sorts … Read More »
How to Turn Bathtime Personal Care Battles into Bliss
What feels finer than sinking into a warm, relaxing bath at the conclusion of a long, busy day? While most of us relish the luxurious comfort that bathtime brings, for seniors, especially those struggling with the challenges of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, it’s certainly not blissful.
For many different reasons, such as memory issues, feelings of vulnerability, or physical distress from the pressure or temperature of the water, helping a senior with the personal care tasks of bathing can feel a lot more like entering a battleground.
Hired Hands Homecare of California wants to help restore the joy of bathtime for both the senior and his or her caregiver with these ideas:
Ensure safety. Keeping the bath area free from hazards is critical. Make certain that:
Grab bars and mats that are slip-resistant are strategically placed in and around the tub
The water temperature is … Read More »
Tips for Family Caregivers to Overcome Dementia-Related Personal Care Battles
Assisting a senior you love with personal care needs – tasks like taking a bath, getting dressed, and helping with toilet needs – can be uncomfortable for both the senior and yourself. It requires the senior to set modesty aside and allow herself to be vulnerable. And when Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia is added to the mix, the senior’s feelings of distress may become overwhelming, resulting in an outburst.
The exact trigger behind these outbursts can vary from one person to another, but some of the more common reasons are:
Loss of control. A person’s sense of independence can feel as though it’s slipping away in a number of areas for older adults, and trying to remain in control over the most basic functions becomes even more important.
What can help: Help the senior to feel as much in control … Read More »
Hired Hands’ California Dementia Care Separates Fact from Fiction
Have you tried Googling “Alzheimer’s disease” and attempted to sift through the millions of results that instantly pop up? As wonderful as the age of the Internet is, it can also be overwhelming to try to sort out the true facts from the overabundance of old wives’ tales.
At Hired Hands Homecare, our California dementia care specialists offer the following breakdown of some of the most common myths, and the truths behind them:
Myth: Mom remembers so many stories from when she was growing up, so she certainly can’t have Alzheimer’s disease.
Truth: Alzheimer’s disease affects short-term (more recent) memories first, meaning that those memories of the more distant past can linger much longer as the disease progresses. This explains why someone newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease can often remember stories from the past quite clearly. Additionally, someone with Alzheimer’s tends to have … Read More »
The Hidden Dangers of Providing Alzheimer’s Care and the Importance of Dementia Support
Picture how it would feel to wake up in an unfamiliar place, unable to remember how you got there or even what your name is. Complete confusion swiftly turns into fear and anger, and you may find yourself lashing out at the stranger standing beside your bed, speaking to you in a soft voice.
This scenario paints a bleak and sadly accurate picture of an Alzheimer’s patient’s reality. Now imagine standing in front of a person you love, and having that person look at you with no recognition whatsoever. Each day your heart breaks a little bit more, but you push through the pain and go on with your caregiving duties for your loved one with Alzheimer’s.
According to the latest report from Alzheimer’s Association, a whopping 17.7 billion hours of care are provided by family caregivers each year to those with … Read More »
True Teamwork is Magic in Homecare
Here is a PRIME example of how Hired Hands Homecare operates day in and day out with our amazing Clients and outstanding Caregivers…
On Jun 16, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Erin Winter <Erin@HiredHandsHomecare.com> wrote:
Hi Linda and Emi,
I just wanted to throw out a huge thank you for doing such a great job with Mr. S. I spoke with Mrs. S yesterday and she said “Where have you been hiding these ladies? They were nothing short of perfect, wonderful in every way. Don loved them and enjoyed his time with them! I couldn’t have asked for more!” To get feedback like this is such a gift and we so appreciate your hard work and dedication. Whenever either of you are working with one of our clients, I know they are in the best hands!
Mrs. S has gone through bad experiences with caregivers … Read More »
