Companion Care at Home: Around 6.2 million U.S. adults have Alzheimer’s disease.
Seven out of ten adults with Alzheimer’s are 75 or older. It can be hard to tell if an older parent is simply dealing with normal age-related forgetfulness or if it’s Alzheimer’s. How do you tell the difference? A Companion Care at Home Services Provider can help you keep an eye out for symptoms.
Difficulties With Speech
Someone dealing with age-related forgetfulness may be trying to recall the name of a book they just finished but can’t remember it. Someone with dementia will forget words and be unable to recall them. Sometimes, the person with Alzheimer’s will substitute a nonsensical word for what they’re trying to remember.
When a person with Alzheimer’s forgets words, it often leads to embarrassment. That embarrassment can prevent them from wanting to see others. They withdraw from all social and family activities.
Financial Management Troubles
Older adults can experience forgetfulness. If a parent forgets to pay a bill for the first time, it’s not a big deal. That can be age-related forgetfulness. Now, what if that same parent continues to miss payments and is constantly spending more money than is being deposited? The inability to handle financial matters is a sign of Alzheimer’s.
Forgetting the Date
When a person can’t remember the date, it’s pretty normal and is often recalled with a bit of thought. Alzheimer’s goes beyond forgetting the day of the week or the date. With Alzheimer’s disease, it becomes difficult to understand what season, month, or year it is.
Forgetting Appointments
With normal age-related forgetfulness, forgetting an appointment isn’t uncommon, but it’s usually remembered when the reminder call or email arrives. With Alzheimer’s disease, forgetting is a constant thing, and reminder calls and emails never help. The person will miss the appointment anyway and become frustrated if they’re fined for the no-show.
Losing Items
People with Alzheimer’s often lose things. It may be in an unusual place when they’re found, such as a wallet in the freezer or a pair of glasses in the sugar jar. Normal age-related forgetfulness has a person setting something down, but after a few minutes of retracing one’s steps, the item can be located.
Companion Care at Home: Problems Completing Tasks
When a person has Alzheimer’s, it can be hard to complete daily activities of living. It’s normal to forget if they’ve showered or not, taken daily pills, or had a meal.
People experiencing age-related forgetfulness may forget something like how to access the settings on their cellphone. Or, they may forget how to use the oven’s self-cleaning feature and have to look it up.
With companion care at home, a person with Alzheimer’s has support when walking, housekeeping, and shopping. As the disease progresses, caregivers can help with personal care and grooming, too. Call a home care specialist to ask about companion care at home today.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Companion Care at Home in Southbury, CT, please contact the caring staff at Elderly Caregivers, LLC today. (203) 628-7438
Sources:
https://www.alz.org/media/documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf
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