How In-home Care Services Can Help People with Dementia Live Their Best Lives
If you believe you have few choices for safe memory care, hope may be on the way. An enduring myth around dementia is that patients and their loved ones must inevitably choose between an increasingly risky life at home, and the security of a nursing facility. That’s an oversimplification; many times, middle ground can be found.
With the right team and care plan, people living with dementia can get the same high-quality safety, supervision and daily help at home as they would in an assisted living or memory care community. In some cases, our loved ones can continue to live in an environment they know and love, while their caregivers work to minimize common risks associated with cognitive impairment.
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of home care for dementia patients—and how an agency like Care Advantage can help make it happen.
Advantages of memory care at home
While Alzheimer’s and other dementias are currently untreatable, there’s plenty of evidence that suggests that staying active and sociable helps people with these diseases live life to the fullest. Staying at home makes it easier for friends and family to drop in for a cup of tea or to simply provide some companionship. By contrast, moving to an outside assisted living situation uproots and disorients people.
Familiar spaces feel peaceful and secure instead, and home environments can be customized to individual needs in a way that a senior facility rarely can. Daily schedules can be personalized, too. We often talk about dementia patients benefiting from set routines, as if taking medications at the right time or watching “Jeopardy!” every night is enough. But they’re not.
As anyone who’s tried sleeping on the “wrong” side of the bed understands, rituals and habits are deeply ingrained in all of us. But pursuing a good night’s sleep, for instance, may require light and temperature control as well as the best position. Likewise, someone with dementia may struggle to retrieve memories. But sitting in their favorite armchair, at their favorite time of day, with their favorite view of the yard can evoke powerful feelings of continuity and contentment.
A common argument against in-home care for dementia patients is that the world is too often unkind or unwelcoming to them. There are signs this may be changing. Take memory cafés, for example. Meeting in churches, community centers or public libraries, these are places where both caregivers and patients can socialize and take part in activities like board games and sing-a-longs. There are places near home where they can feel included.
Why use an in-home care agency like Care Advantage?
More than 16 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. For many caregivers and recipients, this arrangement works, particularly in the early stages of the disease when symptoms and impairments are easier to manage.
In the longer term, however, stress and exhaustion take a toll on informal caregivers and the quality of care they provide. Hiring a professional team can help — but what happens when one of your nurses calls in sick? How can you be sure that everyone you hire follows proper COVID-19 protocol? The challenges can quickly mount.
An agency like Care Advantage shoulders these burdens. It coordinates everything from companion services to skilled care and allows you to simply spend quality time with your loved one. There is hope, and there are options, for a better lifestyle for everyone.
