Try these tips for taking care of someone with dementia
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
If you’ve met one person who cares for a family member with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, you’ve met only one person who’s a caregiver.
“There is no one-size-fits-all profile of a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s disease,” said physician David Gill, chief of the division of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Just as each person is unique, each caregiving situation has unique circumstances.”
Most caregivers are retirement age, some care for people with early onset dementia and are younger themselves, such as a 30-year-old caring for a 55-year-old parent with dementia. Early onset dementia occurs in people younger than age 65, accounting for about 5% to 6% of those with dementia. A younger adult caring for someone with dementia may still work and have young children at home, bringing a whole different set of challenges to the caregiver role.
“The increased stress of being sandwiched between caregiving roles for a parent and a child or grandchild adds additional stresses on the caregiver,” Gill said. “The stress of caregiving is a universal challenge as we know that in particular, caring for a person with dementia is one of the most stressful roles a person can fill and is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety as well as increased risk of other health issues.”
That is why it is vital for providers to connect caregivers to community resources and to help in developing strategies to manage the challenges in this role. Gill referenced the social worker support programs in neurology and psychiatry at URMC as part of the Memory Care Program, along with the local Alzheimer’s Association chapter and Lifespan.
Many social organizations such as community groups and churches provide both formal and informal assistance such as senior day programming, congregant meals, transportation and senior sitting/respite care, which can support family caregivers, depending upon their needs. These resources can also save money compared with the costs of paid assistance.
Gill offered a few tips for family caregivers:
1. “Find a provider who is knowledgeable about dementia and ensure that your loved one has an accurate diagnosis and has access to the current treatments.
2. “Not all of the treatments that are helpful are medications. In fact, some medications can make a person’s thinking worse. So it is important to ensure non medication techniques are considered to help the person with dementia.
3. “A routine is critically important to helping a caregiver care for a person with dementia. Both a daily and weekly routine help.
4. “The more educated a person is about dementia and caregiving, the lower the stress they feel and the more confident they are as caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Association and Lifespan provide wonderful educational programs and I encourage all caregivers to contact them to learn more about their programs.
5. “Asking for help is critical to succeeding as a caregiver. It is very difficult to ask for help and often a caregiver feels that they have failed if they need to ask for help. However, asking for help from friends or family can reduce the stress on the caregiver and allow other people to feel involved in care. When this is not enough, looking into paid caregiving and respite care is important.”