Mistakes Made When a Senior Has Alzheimer’s

Taking care of a senior parent with Alzheimer’s is always challenging. Every day is different. And depending on how advanced your loved one’s Alzheimer’s is every day will bring new challenges. It’s impossible to prepare for what it will be like to care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s because this disease affects each person differently. It’s important to remember that you will make mistakes when you’re caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. You will lose your patience. You will say or do the wrong thing. It’s inevitable. Forgive yourself when you make mistakes and just keep trying to do better day by day. Seek out senior home care services to help you through the process.

Three of the most common mistakes people make when caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s are:

Not Taking Time For Yourself

Senior Home Care Franklin Lakes NJ – Mistakes Made When a Senior Has Alzheimer’s

It’s hard to overestimate the toll that caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s can take. Emotionally and physically it’s exhausting. Invest in senior home care. A senior home care provider can come a couple of days during the week or spend nights with your senior loved one so that you can get a break. And it’s absolutely essential that you take those breaks. You still need to have the time and emotional bandwidth to live your life, work, pay bills, and take care of yourself. Taking breaks is essential. Don’t put it off. Get some help from a senior home care provider and schedule certain days off for yourself so that you can recharge your own battery.

Asking “Do You Remember?”

Everyone who has cared for a senior loved one with Alzheimer’s has at some point asked their loved one, “Do you remember this?”. And then probably felt bad about it because your loved one can’t remember. It happens to everyone. It’s hard for someone who doesn’t have Alzheimer’s to approach memories the way that someone who has Alzheimer’s does. While you are remembering something that happened in the past to your loved one that moment is the present so they can become confused when you ask if they remember it as if it was something that happened in the past. Try to stop asking that and use other questions to orient them instead like asking them to describe the room to you as they see it.

Not Planning Ahead

With senior home care and help from family and friends your senior parent with Alzheimer’s could stay at home for quite some time. You may be able to spend years with them living at the family home. However, Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease with no cure. Eventually they will need more care than you can give. And that decline can happen quickly. Because many of the high-quality memory care and skilled nursing facilities have wait lists that are years long you should get your senior loved one on some waiting lists now. If a spot opens up and your loved one is still doing well at home you can always turn down the spot. But you don’t want to end up in a situation where your beloved parent needs more care than you can give and needs to be in a facility for their own safety.

Source: https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/alzheimers-disease/10-mistakes-alzheimers-disease-caregivers-make

If you or a senior family member are considering hiring Senior Home Care Services in Franklin Lakes NJ, please contact the caring staff at Caring Solutions Home Care LLC. In-home senior care servicing Bergen & Passaic Counties. Call today at (973) 427-3553.