Memory Care | Alzheimer’s Care
What is Alzheimer’s?
Causes and Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease is an intricate puzzle with many pieces - genetics, lifestyle, and environment only being a few of them. Though some risks like age or family history can't be avoided, today researchers are discovering more controllable factors that could help reduce its risk! Keeping one’s mind sharp has never been so important
(and possible)!
Other risk factors
Family History
Age
Understanding Memory Care
At present, a lot of assisted living centers have memory care centers operating within their facilities. However, assisted living and memory care are very different in the services they provide.
Memory care involves a more comprehensive form of elderly care as it is solely dedicated to people living with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and any other forms of memory impairment. Memory care centers are usually easy to navigate through on the chance that a patient manages to wander off but they also have staff members round the clock to provide supervision on the probability that it actually happens.
Dementia patients in the early to intermediate stages usually spend a bit of time in assisted living institutions because they are allowed to be somewhat independent and their health and safety are catered for. The rooms they stay in are private and the staff is not available 24/7 apart from emergency care staff.
Nursing homes accommodate patients with dementia who are at the later stages of their disease when they are not able to walk, talk, or eat by themselves.
Benefits Provided by
Memory Care Centers
Of all forms of senior care, memory care has grown increasingly rapid and with good reason too. Memory care services are more specific as compared to assisted living as it is better poised to offer high value to a patient dealing with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Some of these benefits include less violent episodes, increased social interactions, fewer falls or injuries, reduced visits to the emergency room, or decreased need for medications.
On top of the fact that memory care centers are responsible for keeping seniors safe and promoting their physical and mental conditions, they provide patients with care services that are structured to decrease their loss of memory. These services range from basic treatments to patient-curated services designed by industry professionals who have specialized in managing dementia.
When You Should Consider Choosing Memory Care
There are certain activities that can reduce the development of dementia and these are services you will not usually find in a nursing home. For example, scientific study has shown that doing an outdoors walk at regular times of the day can help people struggling with dementia apart from the straightforward benefits of exercise. You’ll find that a nursing home might not be so open to that idea.
Music, which is usually found in all residential living rooms for the elderly, might not be so welcome to people with dementia. Memory care staff will have to approach and speak to a patient gently before requesting to play them any music despite the fact that it has been found to offer therapeutic benefits to people with Alzheimer’s.
Perhaps the fact that staff members at a memory care unit are better trained in caring and responding to dementia-related issues such as wandering or hostilities from the patient. The chances you’ll find staff trained specifically to help people with dementia working in a nursing home are not as high as staff members working in a memory care unit.
Every state has set in place rules stipulating how staff must be trained and experience for a certain amount of time before they are deemed qualified to engage a patient with dementia. Memory care centers give more assurance on this issue as compared to nursing homes because the staffers are better skilled at patience when communicating with patients with dementia or calming them down so they can receive to be administered medicine on the chance that they become aggressive.
Memory care centers are also designed for people with dementia. Subtle things such as brightly decorated or painted walls or allowance of natural light are therapeutic aspects for people living with dementia.
Choosing whether to make a memory care facility for an elderly loved one is a tough choice. Make sure that you consider the cost, accreditation of the facility, its location, and the services it offers.
Music, which is usually found in all residential living rooms for the elderly, might not be so welcome to people with dementia. Memory care staff will have to approach and speak to a patient gently before requesting to play them any music despite the fact that it has been found to offer therapeutic benefits to people with Alzheimer’s.