How To Care For Dementia Patients In Care Homes

Detailed Discussion Of Needs

In addition to researching local dementia care homes, it is very important that you have a full and detailed discussion with the home manager about all aspects of your loved ones behaviour and needs. Above all, the safety and care of your loved one is the most important. It is vital that a persons care needs are fully understood and explored before committing to a placement to ease the stress for the individual and their families.

Furthermore, going into a care home with dementia, mental and physical requirements WILL change over time, so ongoing monitoring and discussion is critical.

Planning For The Future

• Talk to the person with dementia to make sure that they have a current up-to-date will that reflects their wishes.
• Encourage the person with dementia to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney so that a responsible person can make decisions on their behalf when they are no longer able to.
• Talk to the person with dementia about making an advance decision to refuse certain types of medical treatment in certain situations. It will only be used when the person with dementia has lost the capacity to make or communicate the decision in the future.
• If the person youre caring for has already lost the ability to make or communicate decisions but doesnt have an LPA, you can apply to the Court of Protection who can make decisions on behalf of that person or appoint someone else to do so.

If the person you care for drives, the law requires them to tell DVLA about their diagnosis. A diagnosis of dementia doesn’t automatically mean someone has to stop driving straight away what matters is that they can drive safely.

How Long Does It Take To Adjust To Memory Care

Dont expect the process of becoming dementia to take months. Its an exciting time moving into a memory care facility but with it all comes a great deal of patience from everyone concerned. While parents and senior citizens need several weeks to become acclimated, Snow expects their transition to be seamless.

Also Check: What Color Is For Alzheimer’s

Tips For Home Safety For People With Dementia

As a caregiver or family member to a person with Alzheimers or related dementias, you can take steps to make the home a safer place. Removing hazards and adding safety features around the home can help give the person more freedom to move around independently and safely. Try these tips:

• If you have stairs, make sure there is at least one handrail. Put carpet or safety grip strips on stairs, or mark the edges of steps with brightly colored tape so they are more visible.
• Insert safety plugs into unused electrical outlets and consider safety latches on cabinet doors.
• Clear away unused items and remove small rugs, electrical cords, and other items the person may trip over.
• Make sure all rooms and outdoor areas the person visits have good lighting.
• Remove curtains and rugs with busy patterns that may confuse the person.
• Remove or lock up cleaning and household products, such as paint thinner and matches.

Things To Consider When Planning Daily Activities

There are several primary things to consider when creating a daily care plan for a person with dementia, including:

There are also some other important points to keep in mind when evaluating the effectiveness of a daily care plan:

• Did the care recipient seem bored, irritable or restless during any specific time of the day? If so, plan another type of activity, or it may work better to plan an extra break.
• What was the result of spontaneous activities? Were they stressful or enjoyable, did they seem to create anxiety or confusion?
• Was there ample time between activities to rest?
• Which activities went well? Why?
• Which times of day seemed overwhelming?
• Which time periods seem to lag, with not enough to do?

Read Also: What Color Ribbon Is For Dementia

Do Dementia Patients Do Better At Home

The biggest value that home care offers is that it allows elders to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. This option is far less disorienting for a dementia patient than a move to an assisted living facility, a memory care unit or a nursing home. Familiar environments offer a great deal of security and peace of mind for individuals with dementia. If a company offers specially trained home health aides for dementia patients, then in-home care can be the ideal starting point for families who need extra help with their loved ones but want to prevent or delay placement in a long-term care facility.

How To Care For Dementia Patients In A Home Setting

Before we find out how to treat dementia patients at home, it is important to truly understand what dementia is and why people who suffer from it need intensive care. Dementia is a chronic illness that causes the progressive and gradual deterioration of mental processes, memory, and brain functions. It is most commonly found to affect elderly citizens. However, dementia is not a natural and inevitable product of aging. There are about 50 million cases of dementia currently globally, and there are 10 million new cases each year. Vascular dementia, Frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinsons disease are all types of dementia but the most common of them all is Alzheimers. Dementia has effects on the psychology of a person and their social, economical, and physical interactions. A person with dementia becomes progressively more dependent on others for day-to-day functions as the disease takes a toll on their ability to do basic things. Hence, people with dementia must receive the care and medical attention that they need. In perilous times like COVID, receiving aid in external environments may be more challenging which means that measures need to be taken to help dementia patients at home.

Ways to care for dementia patients at home

Also Check: Dementia Ribbon Tattoo

Its Not Just Memory Loss

When caring for dementia patients, its important to remember the condition isnt just memory loss. While memory loss is one of the most prominent symptoms, dementia can also affect other parts of the brain. Some particular types of dementia may manifest in different ways.

Remembering dementia is more complex than memory loss alone will help you provide better care for patients.

Seniors With Dementia Living At Home Have Complex Care Needs

Seniors with dementia who receive care at home may present more challenges than those without dementia because they are more clinically complex. Some of the characteristics of these individuals include the following:

• 1 in 5 have severe cognitive impairment
• 1 in 4 require extensive assistance or are dependent for activities of daily living
• 1 in 4 exhibit any responsive behaviours
• 1 in 4 have signs of depression

Seniors with dementia who live at home score worse on behavioural and cognitive scales compared with other seniors living at home and receiving care. Seniors with dementia exhibit responsive behaviours such as verbal and physical abuse, socially inappropriate behaviour and resisting care more frequently than those without dementia . However, among all seniors with dementia receiving home care, a larger proportion do not exhibit any responsive behaviours than do . Seniors with dementia score the same in health instability and are admitted to hospitals less frequently. The CHESS Scale detects health instability and is designed to identify individuals at risk of serious decline.

You May Like: Alzheimers Awareness Ribbons

Tips For A Healthy And Active Lifestyle For People With Dementia

Eating healthy and staying active is good for everyone and is especially important for people with Alzheimers and related dementias. As the disease progresses, finding ways for the person to eat healthy foods and stay active may be increasingly challenging. Here are some tips that may help:

• Consider different activities the person can do to stay active, such as household chores, cooking and baking, exercise, and gardening. Match the activity to what the person can do.
• Help get an activity started or join in to make the activity more fun. People with dementia may lack interest or initiative and can have trouble starting activities. But, if others do the planning, they may join in.
• Add music to exercises or activities if it helps motivate the person. Dance to the music if possible.
• Be realistic about how much activity can be done at one time. Several short mini-workouts may be best.
• Take a walk together each day. Exercise is good for caregivers, too!
• Buy a variety of healthy foods, but consider food that is easy to prepare, such as premade salads and single portions.
• Give the person choices about what to eat, for example, Would you like yogurt or cottage cheese?

A Safer Environment Offering Fewer Hospital Admissions

One dementia home care benefit is the fact that home care is much safer than a care home. Research proves there are a third as many falls for dementia patients, helping reduce the risk of serious injury and hospital admissions.

Falls pose a serious risk in later life, and the close monitoring of dementia home care patients by our dedicated team offers full-time assistance with movement, helping keep you safe and well.

You May Like: Neurotransmitter Involved In Alzheimer’s

Staying In A Familiar Atmosphere To Retain Memories

For those with dementia, staying in a familiar environment unearths several benefits for home care. This reduces anxiety and confusion as the client remains in a familiar routine. Additionally, being familiar with the layout and surroundings of the close environment increases safety, comfort and awareness.

Living around household memories also helps improve the cognitive function in dementia patients and helps reduce memory loss and confusion. You can live with your close family and partners, pets, family, photos and so on and in the early stages of dementia, this can have many positive effects.

Decide On Future Financial And Medical Plans With The Patient

It is important to get clarity on how to cope as time progresses and the dementia worsens. You should have clear plans worked out on who will manage the banking and financial affairs of the individual. Share your number with the utility company, informing them of the condition of your loved one, so that power supply or heating isnt cut off if they forget to pay their bills. Also do the difficult task of discussing which medical treatments they would prefer not to be subjected to, should the need arise at a future date.15 This legal document is known as an advance care directive and details what health decisions can be made on their behalf if they are no longer capable of doing so.16

You May Like: What Is The Color For Dementia Awareness

Tips For Everyday Care For People With Dementia

Early on in Alzheimers and related dementias, people experience changes in thinking, remembering, and reasoning in a way that affects daily life and activities. Eventually, people with these diseases will need more help with simple, everyday tasks. This may include bathing, grooming, and dressing. It may be upsetting to the person to need help with such personal activities. Here are a few tips to consider early on and as the disease progresses:

• Try to keep a routine, such as bathing, dressing, and eating at the same time each day.
• Help the person write down to-do lists, appointments, and events in a notebook or calendar.
• Plan activities that the person enjoys and try to do them at the same time each day.
• Consider a system or reminders for helping those who must take medications regularly.
• When dressing or bathing, allow the person to do as much as possible.
• Buy loose-fitting, comfortable, easy-to-use clothing, such as clothes with elastic waistbands, fabric fasteners, or large zipper pulls instead of shoelaces, buttons, or buckles.
• Use a sturdy shower chair to support a person who is unsteady and to prevent falls. You can buy shower chairs at drug stores and medical supply stores.
• Be gentle and respectful. Tell the person what you are going to do, step by step while you help them bathe or get dressed.
• Serve meals in a consistent, familiar place and give the person enough time to eat.

General Changes Around The Home

• When you first start making changes in your home, the best tip we can give you for guidance is to focus on prevention rather than caution. Instead of walking around a rug, for instance, remove it altogether.
• Make sure your house is well lit. Open the curtains, cut any vegetation outside the windows that could be over-shading your home, and if needed, add some lamps that will also contribute to the feeling of warmth.
• Keep family photos and happy memorabilia around the home for good spirits. You might be facing some struggles along your journey, and looking back on happy memories will keep you in good spirits. You can stroll down our many nostalgic posts as well.
• Spending time outside will be beneficial. If you have a garden and you enjoy it, consider adding a birdbath or a bird feeder to attract some welcome avian visitors. Make sure your outdoor sitting area is well shaded so you can spend the time comfortably and safely.
• Research how can you use technology to help you. Nowadays there are sensors for gas leaks, smoke, water temperature, and many more potentially hazardous incidents that will alert or switch off your devices before anything bad happens. You can even purchase an automated feeder for your pet.
• Call in your family and host a de-cluttering day. Your home should be organized, easy to navigate, and clutter-free. These projects will do the trick in no time!

Don’t Miss: How Fast Does Ftd Progress

How To Create A Checklist And Daily Care Plan For Dementia

Caring for a parent or senior loved one with dementia involves many skills, such as providing daily caregiving tasks, household management and participating in decision-making. With so much to do and so little time, establishing a daily care plan can help caregivers spend more meaningful time on productive activities with loved ones with dementia.

Learn more about how to create a checklist and daily care plan for dementia during this time.

Trends In Restraint Use Among Seniors With Dementia Improve Over 5 Years

Restraint use among seniors in long-term care, percentage, 20112012 to 20152016

Restraint use among seniors with dementia decreased between 2011 and 2015, from 17% to 7% in Ontario, from 16% to 9% in Alberta and from 13% to 10% in B.C.

Continuing Care Reporting System, 20112012 to 20152016, Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Read Also: Aphasia And Alzheimer’s

Warning Signs Home Care For Dementia Patients Isnt Working

Theres currently no cure for dementia. Some older adults age at home successfully for years or even decades with moderate dementia, relying on family caregivers for support. But its important to keep in mind that dementia is unpredictable, and care needs could change suddenly.

Also, dont forget that caregiver needs and abilities may change as well. Poor caregiver health is one of the most common reasons older adults with dementia move to memory care.

If dementia progresses to the point where any of the three must-haves safety precautions, health care, and stimulation cant be met, or the caregivers emotional or physical health is at risk, memory care may be needed. Exploring options early can help prevent stress and worry when the time comes for a change.

Contact our Senior Living Advisors if caring for a parent with dementia at home has become overwhelming, or if you believe your loved one isnt receiving the necessary resources to slow cognitive decline. Our senior living experts can provide more information about respite options, professional Alzheimers home care, or memory care in your area.

Challenges Of Caring For Seniors With Dementia In Long

Within long-term care homes, 69% of residents had dementia in 20152016. The proportion of those having any form of cognitive impairment was 87%.

The population in long-term care has changed rapidly over the past 5 years to be the population with moderate to severe dementia. What we know now is that if you are in long-term care, you have cognitive impairment, said Cooper.

It can be quite challenging to provide care for residents with dementia in long-term care homes. In addition to severe cognitive impairment , 50% had responsive behaviours, 31% had signs of depression and 82% required extensive assistance or were dependent for activities of daily living.

Recommended Reading: Alzheimer’s Association Colors

What Do You Do When Your Elderly Parent Refuses To Move

What Is The Best Care For Dementia Patients

85% of people with dementia would like to remain at home. For those living with Dementia, at some stage, you will require care and assistance with your daily routine. A helping hand to provide for you in times of need helps you stay safe, healthy and cared for, and thats what our team is committed to.

When considering care options, many people instantly think of moving themselves or their loved one into a care home. The daunting thought of leaving home comforts, familiar surroundings, loved ones, memories, pets and more can leave many people feeling down. We are here to tell you that there is a much-preferred solution that many people dont even consider that is heartfelt dementia home care in which a carer provides for you in your own home.

Read Also: Neurotransmitter Alzheimers