How Adult Day Care can help you maintain your sanity while caring for your loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease

Adult Day Care provides comfort, support, care, companionship and counseling for elderly or Alzheimer’s patients who require supervision during daytime hours. It offers patients opportunity to socialize and to receive health and social services in a stimulating and supportive environment. When you have chosen your Day Care, make sure that their license is current and do not hesitate to ask questions. Among others, ·Ask to see results of their state inspections and if there were any deficiencies, ask if they have been corrected. ·Observe if patients are involved in activities. ·Does staff encourage participants to be as independent as possible? ·Ask about staff to client ratio. For Alzheimer’s patients, ratio should be at least one staff member for every eight patients. ·Meet director and staff. ·Is there a lot of staff turnover? ·What are emergency procedures? ·Do they serve meals and how are they prepared? Do they offer food for patients of special dietary needs? ·Is there a secure outdoor area sufficient for walking and spending time outside? It can be vital for an Alzheimer’s patient to spend time outdoors in order to have a good quality of life. ·What are hours of operation? ·How do they handle participants who wander? ·How often must participant attend and for how long? ·How involved can I be as a family member? Find out what requirements for admission are. These may include a health history and a physical may be necessary with a current (within last year) TB test or chest x-ray. Take time to sit with director or staff and go through all processes prior to attending day care.

How to manage medications for your loved one with Alzheimer’s

First of all, remember that it is extremely important for your loved one to take his/her prescribed medications. Not doing so could cause both physical and mental problems and could lead to emergency room. How best to manage medication will depend on how much medication she takes, how many times a day she takes it and her ability to manage it.

If your loved one is capable of taking her medication and just needs reminders, you can purchase some devices. One of them from ALR Technologies, http://www.alrt.com, is inexpensive and size of your palm. It is called Med Reminder. It uses a beeping sound and a visual signal as a reminder to take medication at prescribed time, day and night.

You will find instructions on how to operate this device on above website. If on other hand, your loved one is in a stage where she cannot remember to take medication, then you, or someone else, for example a nurse or family member, will need to intervene and give it to her. In mid to later stages of Alzheimer's, you need to observe her taking medication. You should also watch her when eating, as people with Alzheimer’s disease begin to have difficulty swallowing as disease progresses. This is a real concern for those caring for them, as caregivers need to be constantly on alert to intervene if needed.