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How to Take Better Care of Someone Who’s Suffering from Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease has been recognized as a chronic progressive ailment that destroys brain cells. It also leads to impairment in thoughts, behavior, memory, and severely undermines the overall quality of life for the affected individual. According to an estimate in 2016 by CDC (the Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Alzheimer’s affects about 5.7 million individuals in the United States alone.

People suffering from Alzheimer’s require constant care and assistance, and caretakers may include trained staff or family members. Therefore, it is essential to understand how to best take care of the needs of someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. This article discusses a few helpful tips that should give you enough information to get started with the responsibility of taking care of those you love most.

Gather Information About Alzheimer’s

Since Alzheimer’s is a progressive ailment, the symptoms understandably worsen with every passing day and bring along more challenges for the affected individual and the primary caregivers. To offer optimal care, you need to have basic information about the different stages of this disease and the symptoms that mark each stage. This will help you stay ahead of the disease course in planning and managing the care routine. There are three primary stages of this disease: mild Alzheimer’s, moderate, and severe presentation.

With the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or a mild presentation, the affected individuals can function independently. They can still take part in various social or professional day-to-day activities. The primary challenge during this stage is remembering events that have occurred recently or experiencing difficulty concentrating. The moderate presentation comes with various symptoms of confusion, memory loss, and physical function deficits.

When the disease progresses to a severe stage, the affected individuals will need regular help with basic routine activities, like eating, walking, or even sitting up. They may also forget the basics of conversation and may have difficulty swallowing or chewing. Most patients would lose a sense of their surroundings and may not recognize their friends or close family members.

Come Up With a Routine

As a primary caregiver, you can help your loved one by creating a consistent daily routine to follow. This will make everything easy and comfortable for the affected individual and help them gain a certain familiarity. If you search for information about in home care Las Vegas or any other city, you will find that routine is a common factor in all centers. You must not make any sudden changes in the person’s routine suffering from Alzheimer’s because it can confuse them. However, it is understandable that sometimes you will not control such changes, but you need to be mindful of the unease it will cause for the affected person.

Get an Activity Plan for Them

You can also plan activities for the entire week to help them remain engaged and involved in something conducive. The activities may be simple tasks, like listening to music or dancing or cooking, household chores (folding the laundry), tending to plants, watching a movie, or visiting a family or friend. As a caregiver, you will have to plan for the activities during the time of day that is more comfortable for your loved one. Some people may feel energetic earlier in the morning while others will have more activity spark during the evening hours.

Promote an Environment of Communication

A person who has Alzheimer’s disease may have a hard time indulging in conversations and may gradually lose the ability to communicate. They may also find it difficult to remember or interpret different words or lose track of their thoughts mid-sentence. As a caregiver, you can help them communicate effectively by establishing eye contact or smiling at them. You may also ask questions to prompt an answer that may help them remember the word they are looking for. It is essential that the caregivers maintain relaxed body language and have a soft and calming voice. However, you should not oversimplify things or use baby talk with them. If the person suffering from this ailment is having an anger outburst, you have to stay calm.

A person suffering from this progressive ailment is already suffering a lot, and the quality of their life is highly jeopardized. However, as a caregiver, you can do small things to boost the self-esteem of your loved one.

As a caregiver, you can help them with grooming or hygiene tasks, like putting on some makeup, brushing their teeth, or helping them shave or trim nails, and other such tasks. Caring for an individual suffering from Alzheimer’s disease is undoubtedly a challenging task, but you can take small steps to make a massive difference in the life of your loved one.

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