Your mom or dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia. Now what?

You need a Dementia Care Plan, which might help to slow progression of the disease and postpone placement in an assisted-living or skilled-nursing facility.

Dementia Care Plan

This plan will assist your parent in attaining the highest quality of life possible in light of the diagnosis. The plan also will give you and your family the peace of mind of knowing you are planning for the future while doing everything you can now to help make your parent’s life happy and satisfying.

Age @ Home will help create, implement and monitor the Dementia Care Plan to ensure that it contines to meet the needs and desires of our client and your family. For, as you’ve no doubt discovered already, dementia can change from day to day and even minute by minute.  We’ll stay on top of it, so you can relax a little.

Components of the Care Plan include:

• Home safety evaluation.
• Medical/medication management.
• Healthcare advocacy. If you want, we’ll talk with the doctors, because we speak their language.
• Steps to keep your parent out of the emergency room as much as possible.
• Fall prevention.
• The hiring of caregivers to help keep your parent at home longer.
• Alternative transportation. We can be the bad guys when it comes to keeping the car keys away from your parent.
• Referrals to a host of community resources.
• Research on appropriate assisted-living or skilled-nursing choices — just in case.

Recognizing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

• Memory loss that affects activities of daily living, including dressing or grooming.
• Difficulty performing once-familiar tasks.
• No longer participating in favorite activities.
• Problems with language.
• Disorientation to time or place.
• Poor or decreased judgment.
• Problems with abstract thinking.
• Hiding or misplacing things.
• Changes in mood or behavior.
• Loss of initiative.
• Repeating things.
• Inability to learn new things.
• Getting lost while driving in once-familiar neighborhoods.