An estimated 15 million family caregivers in the US provide unpaid care for a loved one with dementia. Despite the fact that the physical and emotional toll on family caregivers is well-documented, little has been done to integrate caregiver support into the routine care of dementia patients. Poor caregiver well-being may not only matter for the patient and caregiver, but for health systems’ bottom line as well. Caregiver burden and fatigue exacerbate the dementia patients’ high hospital and emergency department use. In fact, over five years, the average cost of care for a person with dementia was found to be more than 80 percent higher than the cost of care for a patient with heart disease or cancer.
Must-Ask Questions When You're Choosing a Nursing Home
Choosing the right nursing home is challenging. And chances are good you'll someday face this decision for yourself or a loved one. More than half of older adults will eventually stay in a nursing home for at least one night, according to a September 2017 study. Of course, most residents stay much longer.
Obviously, you can't just rely on facility tours or promotional brochures to make this crucial decision. First, get your ducks in a row. You can locate possible facilities and find inspection data by searching the U.S. News Best Nursing Homes rankings, as well as downloading a comprehensive checklist for visits.
To Help Others, One Couple Talks About Life With Early-Onset Alzheimer's
When Bella Doolittle heard her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's last February, she sat in the car outside the doctor's office and cried. "He said, 'Well, we figured out what's going on with you and this is it.' And I'm like, 'No, it's not.' "
Doolittle's husband, Will Doolittle, sits next to her on the couch, recalling how she grilled the doctor. "You asked, 'How long does this take? How long do I have?' And he said, 'On average, eight years.' That really upset you."
Respite Care: 8 Ways to Get a Break from Caregiving
Every caregiver needs a break from time to time. Options for respite care range from informal agreements with friends and neighbors to formal contracts for services with an agency or onsite at a facility. Here are 8 ways to get occasional or regular backup help for a few hours, a few days, or longer.
Dementia Fact Sheet
Dementia is a syndrome – usually of a chronic or progressive nature – in which there is deterioration in cognitive function (i.e. the ability to process thought) beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement. Consciousness is not affected. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional control, social behaviour, or motivation.
Smart businesses are helping workers take on growing caregiving role
We are getting older, and the aging of society affects our social structures, including our workplaces. This is particularly evident in the intersection of family caregiving and engagement in the workforce. The implications of caregiving on employment, and vice versa, are enormous. But if we face the facts, we have an opportunity to frame the future.
Employees of Elmwood Hills Nursing Facility Achieve National Certification for Alzheimer and Aging Care
National Certification Board for Aging and Alzheimer Care (NCBAC) confers certifications to students who are employees of the southern New Jersey facility. Each of the certificants successfully completed a standardized, proctored exam to earn the credential of CAC(tm) or Certified Alzheimer Caregiver.
Embracing and Savoring an Imperfect Holiday Season
“This year will be different,” author and mom of four Alexandra Kuykendall inevitably tells herself every year as she pulls out her Christmas decorations. This year she won’t be tired or stressed. This year she won’t be ready for the holidays to be over.
And this year it is different, because she’s vowed to focus on loving her actual Christmas, to be present in her life as it really is. Which she documents in her new book aptly titled, Loving My Actual Christmas: An Experiment in Relishing the Season.
How a simple plan to give dignity to dementia patients changed society
There’s a happy-making little film on YouTube of a man dancing by himself at a music festival. Some people sitting on the grass nearby look on, curious and amused. Most ignore him or don’t notice him; their backs are turned and their attention elsewhere. Then after a minute or so, another person gets up and joins in, grinning and a bit self-conscious, but with him nevertheless. Now there are two people dancing. Another stands up, hesitates and then starts to dance. Now there are three: three makes it a group. There are four, five, 10, more and more. Too many to count.And soon a whole field of people is dancing. It’s become a movement. The people who started it don’t matter any more.
Older Adults: 4 Things to Consider When Care Planning
As a clinical social worker and care coordinator at Montefiore Health System's Center for the Aging Brain, I've learned that older adults face similar barriers when it comes to navigating health care. Many predict that by the year 2030, the amount of older American's will double and account for a significant amount of our population. As this population continues to grow, it's important that caregivers are aware of some common issues faced by older adults to ensure their loved ones receive the best care. Here are things to consider when planning for care.
Know the difference
Because they both affect the memory, it can be hard to differentiate between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what you need to know to be able to distinguish the two:
What are dementia and Alzheimer’s disease?
Dementia is an umbrella term for symptoms that impact everyday life, like impaired memory and thinking. Rather than a standalone disease, it is a way to explain symptoms someone is experiencing.
Alzheimer’s disease is a specific type of dementia. Nearly 60-70 percent of people with dementia have Alzheimer’s, making it the most common form of dementia.
The Good News About The Longer Lives of Family Caregivers
The national narrative on family caregiving has been largely negative. Not a week goes by without the publication of a new caregiver memoir about how trying it was to care for a parent with dementia. Not a month elapses without some news item of a caregiver killing his care recipient and then himself somewhere in America. The websites of caregiver advocacy groups add to this negative impression with a steady stream of reports about the effects of caregiver stress among different cultural groups struggling with various kinds of arduous caregiving. It is enough to discourage any family member from taking up the caregiving cudgel or, at the least, to approach it with fear and dread.