July 12, 2016
Tips to Alleviate the Burden of Caring for Someone With Alzheimer’s
Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease presents unique and tremendous challenges that you don’t see with other forms of caring. Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s often means watching a loved one slowly deteriorate and forget your very existence. This can be extraordinarily stressful and difficult to accept and live with anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
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In addition to bearing witness to a love one’s memory fade away, a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient must also cope with the patient’s wandering, hallucinations, and someone who becomes suspicious and confused about even their own relatives. Adequate care can mean 24-hour, around-the-clock care, which often falls upon the shoulders of the closest family members.
Family caregivers who try to provide this intense of care eventually grow overwhelmed and exhausted. Studies have indicated that caregivers to Alzheimer’s or Dementia patients have a higher rate of getting the disease themselves over the general population.
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Perpetual stress wears hard and heavy on the body and mind.
Dr. Kathy Johnson, PhD, CMC, Certified Geriatric Care Manager and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Home Care Assistance proposes the following suggestions to those caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s:
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- 1. Contact the Alzheimer’s Association or the Senior Center in your city. They can help you find support groups or organizations for you to join to get information and connect with others just like you.
- 2. Arrange for respite care; call relatives, neighbors or friends and ask them to help. Patch together a weekly schedule of people who will fill your shoes so you can run errands, get groceries or just enjoy time off from caregiving. Home Care agencies, like Home Care Assistance, are experts in providing respite care ranging from a few hours day to 24/7 care.
- 3. Research Adult Day Care Centers; these are typically 9-4 daily programs where you drop off your loved one for the day. They offer a routine, safe environment.
- 4. Hire a Geriatric Care Manager; visit www.caremanger.org for a list of care managers in your area. These professional can help you locate and coordinate all the services your loved one needs, relieving you in the process.