Due to the fact that every person’s circumstances are unique, it can be challenging to decide whether memory care is necessary. Engage in an open dialogue with the patient’s medical care team and all family members, including spouses or partners. Knowing how your loved one’s illness is developing and how much assistance may be offered at home will help to guarantee that they receive the care they require to be as healthy and comfortable as possible.
Alzheimer’s disease and other associated dementias are chronic, deteriorating diseases. Your loved one may be independent in the early stages of dementia, but as the condition worsens, your loved one will need round-the-clock care. How can you tell when to place a loved one in memory care? The following signs may indicate when someone with dementia should go into care:
Difficulty Performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
Your loved one may experience growing difficulties with their independence and everyday functioning due to the steady decrease in abilities brought on by dementia. Continued care at home might be hazardous to the health and safety of both you and your loved one if you have trouble lifting or helping them for bathroom trips. Chronic incontinence, which can be challenging to manage at home, is another side effect of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Incontinence care needs equipment and supplies that are not occasionally feasible at home in order to prevent infections.
Unpleasant Behavioral Changes
Dementia patients frequently exhibit anger, agitation, violence, and sundowning as the condition worsens. As a sole family caregiver, it can be challenging to control and manage these behaviors as they get more severe over time. To effectively reroute behavior, memory care team members get training in person-centered cognitive behavioral approaches.
Delusions and Hallucinations
As their dementia worsens, your loved one can start having hallucinations and delusions. Helping a family member who is encountering unreal things in their daily lives at home can be challenging. It might occasionally endanger you or a loved one as well. This might be another obvious symptom that someone needs memory care.
Frequent Wandering and Falls
It might be challenging to keep your loved ones in a safe atmosphere at home if they wander off often. Unattended roaming can lead to harmful falls, injuries, and loss of identity. Wandering behavior that is getting harder to control or prevent might indicate that memory care is required. Modern memory care communities include built-in safety measures like continuous-loop pathways with closed entrances to prevent your loved one from becoming lost. Your loved one should be kept secure and under supervision everywhere they go while they are in a memory care facility.
Refusal of Care
As dementia grows, it’s one of the most distressing aspects that your loved one can start forgetting you. They could even exhibit paranoid behaviors, which would make it harder for you to provide care. If your loved one no longer accepts your support, it may become more difficult. The person-centered care methods that are frequently taught to dementia care workers may be the greatest choice for your loved one’s effective care in memory care.
Increased Physical Health Decline
When you observe a substantial deterioration in your loved one’s physical condition, it may be time for memory care. A severe loss of movement and degradation of physical health are frequent as dementia advances into its latter stages. Memory care communities offer comprehensive health care teams, including therapists, physicians, and dieticians, to help your loved one. Select a memory care community that can successfully meet the specific medical requirements of your family member.
Depression and Isolation
As their health deteriorates, it could be challenging to provide opportunities for entertainment and social interaction if you’re taking care of a family member at home. Social exclusion and loneliness may have a detrimental impact on the health of your loved one, raising the danger of despair, anxiety, and other dementia-related behaviors like agitation. Memory care communities usually organize brain-stimulating senior living activities for residents which your loved one can benefit from.
