Alzheimer's & Dementia Care

Alzheimer's disease is not natural aging. It is a progressive disease that causes the abnormal death of brain cells. The initial symptoms include memory loss, but as the disease progresses, it is important to be prepared for increasing levels of care.

Lewy Body Dementia is caused by different factors than Alzheimer's disease, but the symptoms can be hard to differentiate.

Maintaining a safe and secure living environment will enable seniors with Alzheimer's disease to remain in the community for as long as possible, but additional home safety modifications are usually required as memory issues and dementia behaviors worsen.

Many family caregivers eventually realize that their aging loved ones are no longer fit to drive. If an elder refuses to stop driving and maintains that they’re still safe behind the wheel, you may need a backup plan for keeping them off the road.

Age should never be the sole reason for taking away a person’s driving privileges, but a number of physical and mental health conditions, medications, and/or age-related health changes can seriously compromise a senior’s driving abilities.

Multi-infarct dementia is a type of vascular dementia caused by numerous small strokes in the brain. The damage to brain tissue significantly impairs an elder's memory.

Although no treatment has been proven to stop or slow the progression of AD, some prescription drugs have been shown to help minimize behavioral symptoms for some patients over a limited period of time.

The average cost of in-home care for a senior with dementia is about $27 per hour.

As a symptom of dementia, paranoia causes a person to become suspicious, fearful, or jealous of other people with no evidence of any real danger.

People with dementia tend to sleep frequently throughout the day and night, and time spent sleeping increases as dementia progresses.

Behavioral disturbances are common in dementia patients, however, dementia can still occur without any behavioral disturbances at all.

Hallucinations cause people with dementia to see or hear things that don't exist, whereas delusions are false beliefs resulting from memory loss.

Home care allows seniors with early- to mid-stage dementia to benefit from living in familiar surroundings until moving to a memory care community.

Agitation causes anxiety, irritability, fidgeting, and restlessness in dementia patients. Learn to identify causes, manage symptoms, and prevent it.

Dementia is progressive, meaning symptoms change and worsen over time. Anticipating each stage may help prepare you as a caregiver.

End-stage dementia is characterized by a rapid loss of speech and mobility as well as systemic infections as the body begins to shut down completely.

Learn the differences between delirium and dementia, including how quickly symptoms appear and their effects on attention and memory.

Depression, nutritional deficiencies, and side effects from medications are among many reversible conditions that could be mistaken for dementia.

On its own, dementia doesn’t normally cause death. As it progresses, however, the condition can increase vulnerability to life-threatening infections.

Dementia is not a normal part of getting older. Learn how age-related changes in the brain differ from those associated with various dementias.