There are a number of reasons why Alzheimer’s is one of the most destructive diseases of the aged. It causes brain cells to break down and eventually die. It takes away a person’s independence, their memories and their livelihood. As it progresses, Alzheimer’s only gets worse. It leaves no survivors. Now that we understand what Alzheimer’s is let’s talk a little bit about what it isn’t. Freedom Home Care provides a list of common myths and misconceptions below. Only Seniors Develop Alzheimer’s According to alz.org, about 5.5 million people over 65 are suffering from Alzheimer’s while roughly 200,000 people
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Archives for Alzheimer’s Disease
Childrens' Books Teach Kids About Alzheimer's
Understanding Alzheimer’s is difficult for most adults. And explaining a complex disease like dementia to a child, can be even more of a challenge. That challenge is magnified when the loved the one suffering from Alzheimer’s as a grandparent. Children have fond memories of grandmothers and grandfathers. Traveling back-and forth to their homes for the holidays, times spent cooking or fishing together – even listening to familiar stories passed down through the generations. When family members branch out and begin their own lives, grandparents are often the glue that holds everyone together. They also seem to hold a special place
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The Gift of Family
Although there are all kinds of apps to help seniors communicate with family and technology to keep us connected, there is truly nothing like spending time together, especially in this season. In the time of celebration, amid the busyness the holidays bring, loneliness can largely affect seniors, especially those with Alzheimer’s, as they aren’t able to do everything they once could. But there’s an easy way to combat the feelings of solitude: family. A family isn’t just blood relatives – it’s the people who care and are willing to sacrifice time for someone else. Not just during one time of
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5 Ways to Help a Family Member Living With Alzheimer's
With nearly 5.4 million individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, there is a vast number of families who are caring for loved ones with this disease. As awareness spreads and purposeful purple badges and ribbons become more plentiful this month, christened National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, there’s no better time than now to get proactive and learn how you can help. Here are some tips to help you and your family member living with Alzheimer’s: Educate and Engage The very first step to helping someone with Alzheimer’s is understanding what is happening and will change in the future—that this disease leads to
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Best Activities for Seniors with Alzheimer’s
As Alzheimer’s disease disrupts memory, impairs their behavior and reasoning, those in senior care near Chicago may stop doing some of the things they once loved. But this diagnosis does not strip one of their needs and desire to have a full, meaningful life. It just means changes may need to be made and new activities taken up that allow self-expression, lessen anxiety, stir memories, promote connection with others and improve quality of life, such as: Read & Relax Books can comfort, entertain, inform and provide an outlet for engagement. Researchers have even found that reading improves the quality of
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What You Need to Know About Communicating and Working With Alzheimer's Patients
Living with the effects of Alzheimer’s on a daily basis can be challenging for both patients and their caretakers. And communicating with a loved one who has the disease can also take a significant toll on your relationship if you’re not clear on how Alzheimer’s impacts the way your senior relates to others. What many family members may not know about a loved one suffering from the disease is that Alzheimer’s can cause significant damage to the neural pathways in the brain. The brain’s neurons are responsible for sending messages back and forth to different parts of the body. Alzheimer’s interrupts this process, leaving
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Activities For Alzheimer's Patients
In order to help loved ones with dementia continue to lead a good, quality life and achieve purpose and pleasure, it’s important that they continually engage in activities that will stimulate them mentally, physically and emotionally. Many times those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are under-stimulated in their daily lives which can lead to a number of things like loss of focus and attention, interrupted sleep patterns, anxiety and depression, and behavioral challenges including repetitive questioning, shadowing and agitation. It’s common, in the first stages of Alzheimer’s, for loved ones to stop doing the things that they once enjoyed. That doesn’t mean they no
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Myths About Dementia
It’s all too common for us as human beings to try to come up with ways to make sense of things we don’t understand. Since we don’t fully understand diseases like dementia, myths can sometimes take the place of the truth. However, it’s important to remember that the people we love, who suffer from dementia, stand to benefit the most when we learn the facts about the disease. Here’s a list that Freedom Home Care created to help clear up some of the misunderstandings that you or people that you know may have about dementia: Dementia Only Affects Seniors Many people believe that dementia is a condition that
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Join Us for the Walk to End Alzheimer's
Get your gym shoes, friends and family ready! We have a date for our North Shore 2017 Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Join us Saturday, September 16, 2017 to help a world without Alzheimer’s.
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An App To Access Dementia Friendly Communities
What if there were a way to make living at home with dementia more suitable for your senior? Developers in Australia are doing just that with a new app that offers caregivers, their patients, and loved ones the capability of creating an accessible environment at home for those with dementia. Back in 2016, researchers from Deakin Software and Technology Innovation Laboratory partnered up with Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria to develop interactive 3D game technology enabling caregivers to help make homes more dementia-friendly. According to the statistics, more than 47 million people worldwide are living with some form of the disease. And
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