Is Your Parent Suffering from Alzheimer’s? Here’s Some Important Advice

Alzheimer’s disease is an alarmingly common neurodegenerative condition that destroys a sufferer’s memory, cognitive abilities, and eventually, ability to carry out everyday tasks. Late-onset is the most common type of Alzheimer’s and begins to impact those with the disease in their mid-60s. If your parent has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, then for their sake, you need to educate yourself about the disease. Educating yourself about Alzheimer’s may also benefit you because the disease can be hereditary.

This article will give you some important advice on handling a parent who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease:

Nursing

If your parent has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s advisable to hire a certified nursing assistant or patient care technician. If you haven’t got experience in nursing, then it isn’t a good idea to try and look after your parent yourself. According to the Alzheimer’s experts from this website, a nurse will handle everything, from feeding your parent to bathing them. If you can’t afford to hire a nurse for your parent, you may have to surrender them into the care of a hospice or care home. There are many state-run old folks’ homes that won’t charge you for admitting somebody to their care.

Learning

As we mentioned already in this article’s introduction, it’s important that you take time to learn about Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s has three stages, mild, moderate, and severe. If your parent has mild or moderate Alzheimer’s then they will still retain some cognitive function and may be able to communicate with you normally. When your parent has severe Alzheimer’s, then their cognitive abilities are massively depleted and they will be unable to look after themselves and will be unable to communicate. When they are in this condition, most experts recommend a full-time nurse or admitting them to a nursing home.

Routine

If you are going to live with your parent, then you need to create a routine for them. Their doctor will likely suggest this to you, so you may already be aware of this. Routine can help to reinforce familiarity to a person who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s. When you make changes to their routine, you will confuse them even more. Confusion can be incredibly stressful to an Alzheimer’s patient. If you do have to make any changes, make sure to introduce them slowly, to give your parents time to adjust. This is especially true if a nurse is going to be coming into your home.

Planning

If you will be your parent’s caregiver, then you need to carefully plan your parent’s daily activities. This is for your sake and theirs, being a caregiver isn’t easy. Some activities that benefit an Alzheimer’s patient include exercising, cooking, dancing, playing board games, listening to music, seeing films, and visiting their friends and family. It is also good to include them in household chores, permitting they are able to assist. All of this helps to create a sense of normalcy that can be crucial to them having a good quality of life.

Communication

It is very important to continue communication with your parent, even if they are suffering from advanced, severe Alzheimer’s. Communicating gives them the opportunity to participate, which they may feel unable to do. Alzheimer’s can leave sufferers feeling lost for words; it can also impact their ability to communicate with others. A few ways to make communication easier for them is to make regular eye contact, smile at them, and use their name in conversations. You should also speak calmly with them, but mustn’t ‘baby talk’ because this can be grossly offensive. When they have angry outbursts, make sure that you are calm with them and don’t snap back.

Diet

For your entire childhood, your parents likely did their best to ensure that you ate healthily. In their declining health, it’s important that you do the same. A healthy diet is key to a good quality of life. People with Alzheimer’s have a tendency to forget when they ate, stay dehydrated, and can’t taste or smell foods. Some may even have difficulty chewing. Because of all of this, you need to be on top of their meal times and must carefully monitor them when they are eating. Make sure to give them a macro and micronutrient-rich diet to stay healthy. Keep a written record you can refer to, in order to ensure they eat at the same time on a daily basis.

Safety

It’s your responsibility to keep your parent safe. Make sure to look after them, clean up after them, and ensure that they don’t hurt themselves. Alzheimer’s patients are notorious for injuring themselves or wandering off. Make sure to lock the doors in your house so your parent doesn’t escape or wander away. With this said, remember that they are not your prisoner. You are simply locking the doors to ensure that they do not get outside and hurt themselves. Some Alzheimer’s patients wander off in an effort to find places they remember from the distant past, such as their childhood home.

If your parent is suffering from Alzheimer’s, then you have your work cut out for you. You will need to become their rock. Follow this article’s guidance, as well as your parent’s physician, and you should have no difficulty looking after them.