by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Mar 18, 2015 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Caregiving, Uncategorized
Dear Donna:
My father’s Alzheimer’s disease has progressed to the point where our family cannot keep him safe at home any longer. My mother, brother and I are just beginning to research dementia care programs available at the assisted living communities near his home in southeast Michigan. I am trying to develop a list of questions to ask when we call and visit each of these communities. Do you have any suggestions on what we should ask? We want to make sure we make the best decision possible for my Dad’s senior care.
Diane
Dear Diane:
It sounds like you are already on the right track by developing a list of questions that will help you get to know each memory care assisted living community a little better. Because Alzheimer’s disease presents unique challenges for caregivers, there are a few questions you definitely need to ask. Here are a few we recommend:
- What kind of training does the staff who works with Alzheimer’s residents receive?
- How often do they attend additional trainings to keep their skills updated?
- Is there a dedicated memory care section of the building? Is it secure?
- How does the community support each person’s physical limitations while still preserving their remaining abilities?
- Is the physical environment of the memory care program designed to support success for people with dementia? Is it clutter-free and calm? Are visual cues in place?
- Are meals adapted to meet the physical changes that are common with more advanced Alzheimer’s disease? (i.e. offering finger foods that don’t require the use of kitchen utensils.)
- Is a care plan developed for each resident? How often is it updated?
- Does the community offer physical activities that people with dementia care participate in?
- Does the Life Enrichment Director plan programs just for residents who have memory loss?
- Is there an emergency plan in place just in case a person with Alzheimer’s wanders away?
- How does the community safely manage medications?
I hope this list is helpful, Diane! If you would like to learn more about specialty dementia care and the features and benefits we offer at Heritage Senior Communities across Michigan, we invite you to call the community closest to your father to arrange a tour.
Donna
Photo Credit
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Mar 10, 2015 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Caregiving, Uncategorized
While the number of women living with Alzheimer’s disease continues to outnumber men, more men are moving to dementia care assisted living communities and at a faster rate. A study released in late 2014 examined the issues behind these statistics.
Agitation, Wandering and Aggression in Men with Alzheimer’s Disease
The research conducted by a national senior care placement company looked at memory care admissions from July of 2011 through June of 2014. It found that men are 27% more likely to require a dedicated dementia care program than their female counterparts. Men also moved to these communities at a 14% faster rate than women.
Two primary reasons seemed to lead families to search for a memory care program. Wandering and aggression were both behaviors adult children and caregiving spouses found too difficult to safely manage in their homes. The study reinforced what many Alzheimer’s experts already knew. Men have higher rates of both these challenging behaviors. They are 8% more likely to wander and 30% more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviors than women with Alzheimer’s disease.
Potential Causes Wandering and Aggression in People with Alzheimer’s
While the cause of wandering and aggression still isn’t completely understood, experts believe there are some factors that may contribute to both:
- Too Much Stimulation: A noisy, overly busy environment can negatively impact someone with Alzheimer’s. Because the disease causes damage to the brain, people with Alzheimer’s have difficulty processing too much information at one time. The frustration it causes can trigger angry, aggressive outbursts.
- Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue: Alzheimer’s disrupts a person’s sleep-wake cycle. It isn’t uncommon for someone living with the disease to have problems sleeping and to go several days without sleep. Even though they are physically exhausted, they are unable to sleep. It can result in stress, anxiety and aggression.
- Unmet Needs: The loss of verbal communication skills makes it difficult to know what a senior loved one living with Alzheimer’s needs. They may be hungry, thirsty or have to use the bathroom and be unable to communicate it. These unmet needs can produce episodes of wandering and aggressive behavior with their caregiver. Undiagnosed pain can also cause a similar reaction.
- Communication Problems: Having problems following a caregiver’s directions can increase anxiety and agitation. Because a person with Alzheimer’s disease likely has an impaired abstract thought process, they may not be able to perform tasks that require the use of some types of memory. Trying to do so can result in anger and frustration.
- Medication Side Effects: Older adults process medicine differently than younger people. They sometimes require smaller dosages or a different medication entirely. The same is true for a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Difficult behaviors may be the result of being overmedicated or an interaction between their medications.
To learn more about Aggression and Anger visit the Alzheimer’s Association resource center online. They share information and suggestions to help families manage challenges ranging from how to get someone with Alzheimer’s to eat to how to use visual cues to communicate.
Photo Credit
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Feb 1, 2015 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Caregiving, Uncategorized
If you are a Michigan caregiver for a senior loved one with Alzheimer’s disease, you might be struggling with a case of cabin fever or the winter blues. It is fairly common this time of year. Many caregivers hesitate to venture out because they fear taking their aging family member out in winter weather may cause them to experience a fall or catch the flu. It can make for long days and weeks.
Beating the Alzheimer’s Caregiver Blues This Winter
We’ve pulled together a few ideas that might help you shake off the winter blues:
- Seasonal Affective Disorder: You first want to make sure your case of the blues isn’t something more serious like Seasonal Affective Disorder. Reading more about the symptoms of SAD may help you decide. If they sound a little too familiar, talk with your primary care physician. He or she will recommend the best approach for getting back on track.
- Exercise: The endorphins released in your body when you exercise are great for lifting spirits and elevating mood. If winter has you trapped indoors and unable to enjoy a walk outside, consider investing in a treadmill or an exercise bike. Health professionals recommend a combined total 30 minutes of daily exercise to help keep you mentally and physically fit.
- Practice Good Nutrition: When your eating habits are unhealthy, energy level can go up and down like a rollercoaster throughout the day. To help stabilize your blood sugars and your mood, stick to a diet rich in complex carbohydrates.
- Check Your Vitamin D: In climates winters are cold like those we have in Michigan, rates of vitamin D deficiency are higher. Because most of us don’t spend much time outdoors soaking up sunlight when it is cold, our bodies don’t produce much of this essential vitamin. A vitamin D deficiency can contribute to feelings of sadness and depression. Talk with your primary care physician about having yours checked and to get their advice on taking a supplement during the winter.
- Sleep: Don’t overlook the restorative benefits of sleep when your mood is low. You don’t want to hibernate and sleep too much, but you want to try to get 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night.
- Limit Alcohol: Limit your alcohol intake. Studies show alcohol only makes blue moods worse. Sticking with one or two glasses of alcohol each week might help you kick the blues this winter.
- Respite Care: Take advantage of respite services offered at local adult day centers and senior living communities. Use the time your senior loved is there to give yourself some “me” time. Schedule a pampering pedicure or a lunch date with friends.
We hope these tips help you overcome the caregiver blues this winter!
Heritage Senior Communities is pleased to announce that our newest community is open in Holland, Michigan. The Village at Appledorn West offers adults over the age of 55 one- and two-bedroom independent living apartments. The campus will also be home to an assisted living community that is projected to open in the spring of 2015.
Photo Courtesy of
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Jan 2, 2015 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Uncategorized
Choosing to move a Michigan senior loved one who has Alzheimer’s disease to an assisted living can be emotional. Because of the difficulties families frequently encounter while trying to keep their loved one safe at home, however, many adult children find they have no choice. Safety and special care needs require them to make this decision.
What can families do to prepare their loved one for a move to a memory care assisted living community?
Here are a few suggestions that can help make this transition go more smoothly:
- Familiar Surroundings: Older adults who have Alzheimer’s disease usually benefit from familiar surroundings. Before moving day, work with the staff at their new community to recreate their familiar home environment. It will help decrease anxiety when their new home looks like their old one. Try to focus on what items remind them most of home. Can you bring their favorite chair? A quilt or throw they use every day? A stack of their old books and magazines can help make their new home more familiar even if they are no longer able to read them.
- Photos and Memorabilia: Plan to bring both older and newer family photos to decorate their room. Remember that their memory loss may make it easier for them to identify older photos rather than new ones.
- Activity Boxes: Create one or two activity boxes full of familiar items. It might be from their past employment or favorite hobbies. If your senior loved one was an accountant, for example, include a ledger, calculator, pencils and other objects they may have used for their job. For gardeners, an activity box might include photos of flower and vegetable gardens, garden gloves, small plastic pots, potting soil and seeds to them to plant.
- Music Therapy: Remember the healing power of music. Bring a small CD player with their name engraved or etched in to it. Also bring a few of their favorite CDs. Encourage staff and family to play their favorite music for them if they seem anxious.
- Reminiscence Board: Before the move, create a Reminiscence board for the staff of the community. Paste copies of photos of people who are important to your loved one on to the board along with a description of the photo. It will help staff get to know your aging parent more quickly and also be a nice for them to have on their wall to look at each day.
We hope these ideas help make the transition to a new environment a little easier for your senior loved one. If you live in Michigan and would like to learn more about memory care, we invite you to visit our Specialized Dementia Care resource page.
Heritage Senior Communities is pleased to announce that our newest community is open in Holland, Michigan. The Village at Appledorn West offers adults over the age of 55 one- and two-bedroom independent living apartments. The campus will also be home to an assisted living community that is projected to open in the spring of 2015.
Photo Courtesy of
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Nov 20, 2014 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Uncategorized
November is designated as National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. As our population grows older, the number of people in the state of Michigan living with Alzheimer’s climbs higher. So while a person living in the U.S. has a lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s than they would have 30 years ago, the sheer number of older adults in our country is what is driving the increase in the number of people with the disease.
According to the Greater Michigan Chapter of The Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 130,000 people in Michigan live with Alzheimer’s disease.
The Statistics on Alzheimer’s Disease
As one of the leading providers of Alzheimer’s care in Michigan, we thought it was important to share some of the statistics on this growing epidemic.
- Someone in the U.S. develops Alzheimer’s every 68 seconds. By 2050, estimates are that number will increase to every 33 seconds.
- More than 5.2 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease. 200,000 of those people are considered to have early onset Alzheimer’s because they are under the age of 65.
- Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S.
- One in three older adults in the U.S. dies from Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of dementia.
- This year alone 450,000 people will die from Alzheimer’s disease.
- In this last decade, the number of deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease has increased by 68%. This is in stark contrast to a decrease in deaths for nearly every other major disease in the U.S.
- 4 million people provide for a family member or a friend with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
- Unpaid family caregivers provide 17.5 billion hours of unpaid care each year. If families had to pay for that care, it would total more than $216 billion a year.
- By 2050, the U.S. will spend an estimated $1.2 trillion providing care for Alzheimer’s patients.
- The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that Medicare paid $107 billion for care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and Medicaid paid $35 billion in 2013.
- Almost 15% of caregivers provide care long distance. Their expenses for caregiving are two times higher than those of local caregivers.
We hope you will share this information with leaders in your local Michigan communities who can help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Heritage Senior Communities is pleased to announce that our newest community in Holland, Michigan. The Village at Appledorn West offers adults over the age of 55 one- and two-bedroom independent living apartments. The campus will also be expanded to include assisted living in the spring of 2015.
Photo Courtesy of
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Oct 30, 2014 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Healthy Aging, Uncategorized
As part of our commitment to keeping our readers updated on the latest research and findings on Alzheimer’s disease, we are sharing a study from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health. While exercise is known to be a critical factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, there is growing evidence to indicate it may also be good for the brain.
Exercise May Be Linked to Improved Brain Health
The study by Dr. J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. It is the first research trial to demonstrate how exercise can be used as an intervention technique for older adults who live with a mild cognitive impairment.
The trial showed that exercise not only improves memory recall but also improved brain function. Physically inactive older adults ranging in age from 60-88 years old were divided in to two groups. The average age of study participants was 78. One group was comprised of older adults living with mild cognitive impairment and the other with normal, healthy brain function. Each group followed a 12-week program of regular treadmill walking. Exercise was supervised by a personal trainer.
By the end of the study, both groups had improved their cardiovascular fitness by about ten percent. They also improved their memory performance and showed improvements in neural efficiency when involved in memory retrieval tasks.
The Bottom Line on Exercise for Alzheimer’s Prevention
The bottom line is that the amount of exercise participants engaged in during the trial isn’t overly aggressive. It is the same recommendation most physicians are already making to patients. That is, you should get 30 minutes of moderate exercise (that which raises your heart rate but allows you to maintain a conversation) five days a week.
Just one more reason to lace up your sneakers and head out for a walk each day!
Photo Courtesy of
