Dementia & Alzheimer’s Caregiver Care Services: Expert Dementia Care with Our 1-to-1 Person-Centered Dementia Care
More than 15 million Americans are currently caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. While each situation is unique, the burden of care can quickly become overwhelming. In fact, research has shown that family caregivers experience higher rates of stress, illness, and financial strain compared to the general population. These issues are often magnified when a loved one is experiencing cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia-related condition.
Taking care of someone with dementia is never easy. In fact, doing so requires a great deal of experience, training, and understanding on the part of the caregiver. But there is another way. At FCP Live-In, we understand dementia-related issues and how best to deliver person-centered dementia care. That is why all of our caregivers go through the Alzheimer’s Association’s Habilitation Therapy Training Program.
Since its inception, the Alzheimer’s Association has been a leader in outlining principles and practices for providing quality care to individuals living with dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association’s Habilitation Therapy Training Program was specifically created for professional care providers who work with individuals living with dementia and their families. This is a nationally recognized, peer-reviewed, evidence-based, and person-centered care approach from the Alzheimer’s Association’s Dementia Care Practice Recommendations. It has been found that this high-quality dementia care training can lead to an improvement in communication between caregivers and individuals living with dementia, a reduction in dementia-related behaviors, and an increase in job satisfaction for staff.
Our 1-to-1 Person-Centered Dementia Care system also relies on previous healthcare experience. All of our care staff are fully certified, have more than two years of professional caregiving experience, and have previously worked with the elderly and dementia-related issues.
We also know that dementia care is not for everyone. While some caregivers have a personality that makes for a perfect fit, others do not. That’s why we employ our “Multi-Step Matching System” caregiver matching system to ensure the best possible match between each caregiver’s skill set and each client’s needs.
All of this is framed by our one-to-one caregiver-to-client attention. Our caregiver’s attention is always focused on one person at all times. No distractions from other individuals or events, just 1-to-1 Person-Centered Dementia Care.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Roughly 5.7 million Americans are living with age-related dementia right now. In fact, dementia is one of the leading causes of dependency and mental impairment among the elderly population.
Dementia is a syndrome marked by a permanent and progressive decline in mental function. An umbrella term, dementia encompasses several cognitive disorders that cause chronic memory loss, impaired reasoning, or personality changes.
When dementia is suspected, a doctor might administer a mental skills test to evaluate disorientation, disorganization, language impairment, and memory loss. Dementia is confirmed when cognitive decline is observed in any three of these areas.
Alzheimer’s disease is a specific disorder that accounts for roughly 70% to 80% of all dementia cases. People suffering from Alzheimer’s experience the slow and irreversible loss of memory and thinking skills. Eventually, Alzheimer’s robs victims of the ability to perform even the simplest tasks.
Doctors have traditionally diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease through observation and by ruling out other dementia-related conditions, as there was no definitive test. Recently, a new type of PET scan was found to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s 95% of the time. However, this test is usually only recommended when symptoms are atypical.
The Basics of Dementia Care
Research suggests that dementia patients benefit from social interaction and are more likely to thrive when treated as a “whole person” rather than merely a patient. The best dementia care programs allow those experiencing memory loss and other cognitive problems a greater sense of control and independence.
Many assisted living facilities and nursing homes offer “memory care” programs for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related disorders. Though these types of programs provide 24-hour supervision and are intended to meet the specific needs and demands of dementia patients, these facility-based programs do not offer one-on-one care. While guidelines recommend a staff-to-resident ratio no higher than 1:6 for an effective memory program, actual ratios vary greatly and can go as high as 1:20. That means your loved one will be required to compete with other residents for the staffs’ limited time and attention. And because the staff rotates shift-to-shift, they may have difficulty recognizing and getting to know their caregivers.
Assisted living and nursing home residents are often exposed to uncomfortable behaviors from other residents experiencing difficulty due to dementia or confusion. The absence of a one-on-one caregiver increases the risk that your loved one might wander from the facility, and reduces the likelihood that subtle changes in their physical or cognitive condition will be noticed in time to head off larger problems.
FCP Live-In Dementia Care at Home
With FCP Live-In’s 1-to-1 Person-Centered Dementia Care program, your loved one will benefit from having a single, trained caregiver in the home for an extended period of time. During the day, they’ll have all of the support, personal care assistance, and companionship they need to remain safe, prevent social isolation, and ensure the highest quality of life possible. With a live-in caregiver, there’s little danger that your loved one will wander away from home unnoticed or experience any decline in physical or cognitive ability that goes unobserved. There will always be someone there to assist with bathing, toileting, and other personal tasks; plan and prepare satisfying and nutritious meals; take care of light housekeeping and laundry, and ensure all medications are taken on time. Each day, our live-in caregiver will engage your family member in social interaction, and friends and family will be able to visit whenever they like, free of the visiting hours and strict regimens typical of most long-term care facilities.
Source:
Link: https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/caregiver-health/caregiver-stress
Link: https://www.aarp.org/health/dementia/info-2018/difference-between-dementia-alzheimers.html
Link: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/19/537907127/for-dementia-patients-engagement-can-improve-mood-and-quality-of-life
Link: https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/stages-behaviors/wandering