Finding The Best Dementia Care Facility

Dementia is a term for mental decline that is severe enough to interfere with the activities of daily living. The most common type of elderly dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, but there are many other causes. Elderly dementia itself is not a disease, but it is a term that encompasses a wide range of symptoms.

When to Look for Help
It can be difficult to decide when a loved one with dementia should no longer live on their own. Many people with various forms of elderly dementia can live independently for years with the right support and memory aids.
Eventually your family member will need to be moved to a facility, but knowing when is difficult. This is especially true since many people with elderly dementia will often conceal their struggles. The following are some signs to be on the lookout for:
They are no longer sending letters of birthday cards regularly.
They have stopped initiating phone calls.
They are in a hurry to get off the phone every time you talk.
They are making calls at strange hours for non-emergencies.
When elderly dementia progresses, it can become difficult to carry out the steps needed to write and send a letter. Losing the ability to carry on longer conversations and communicate with letters can mean that they are also struggling with driving and cooking. When someone is struggling with self-care tasks, you might see some of the following:
Their weight is changing without explanation.
They don’t dress appropriately for the occasion or the weather.
Their clothes do not look clean or they smell.
While the previous signs indicate your loved one might be losing the ability to care for themselves on their own, the most obvious signs are much more serious. Any of these could indicate your loved one is no longer safe at home and needs to be moved to a senior care facility as soon as possible:
Having the utilities turned off because the bills are not paid.
Evidence of donations to charities your loved one does not have a history of supporting.
Robbery caused by doors being left unlocked or because of people they are letting into their home.
Getting lost of wandering off.
Choosing an Elderly Dementia Facility
One of the most important considerations is whether the senior care facility you choose cares for people with all stages of dementia. You don’t want to place them somewhere and then have to move them again when their disease progresses. This could be both frightening and heartbreaking, so make sure they can stay in their new Costa Mesa or Yorba Linda home for the rest of their lives.
You want to choose a senior care facility where the staff is specifically trained to care for individuals with dementia, and they can handle the associated behaviors such as combativeness and sun downing.
There should be specific safety precautions in place for these patients to prevent them from wandering, and these can include locked dementia units or personal monitoring systems.
Paying for Elderly Dementia Senior Care
The majority of families pay for their loved one’s residential care themselves. There are benefits that cover residential senior care, and those include long-term care insurance, Veterans benefits, and Medicaid. Medicare only pays for short-term skilled care and does not pay for the cost of long-term residential care.
At Senior Home Advocates, we have the expertise and experience to help you make the best decisions possible for your loved one with elderly dementia. We’re a comprehensive senior care agency, and we’ll be with you every step of the way.

Finding The Best Elderly Dementia Care Facility

Dementia is a term for mental decline that is severe enough to interfere with the activities of daily living. The most common type of elderly dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, but there are many other causes. Elderly dementia itself is not a disease, but it is a term that encompasses a wide range of symptoms.

When to Look for Help

It can be difficult to decide when a loved one with dementia should no longer live on their own. Many people with various forms of elderly dementia can live independently for years with the right support and memory aids.

But eventually your family member will need to be moved to a facility, but knowing when is difficult. This is especially true since many people with elderly dementia will often conceal their struggles. The following are some signs to be on the lookout for:

• They are no longer sending letters of birthday cards regularly.
• They have stopped initiating phone calls.
• They are in a hurry to get off the phone every time you talk.
• They are making calls at strange hours for non-emergencies.

When elderly dementia progresses, it can become difficult to carry out the steps needed to write and send a letter. Losing the ability to carry on longer conversations and communicate with letters can mean that they are also struggling with driving and cooking.

When someone is struggling with self-care tasks, you might see some of the following:

• Their weight is changing without explanation.
• They don’t dress appropriately for the occasion or the weather.
• Their clothes do not look clean or they smell.

While the previous signs indicate your loved one might be losing the ability to care for themselves on their own, the most obvious signs are much more serious.

Any of these could indicate your loved one is no longer safe at home and needs to be moved to a senior care facility as soon as possible:

• Having the utilities turned off because the bills are not paid.
• Evidence of donations to charities your loved one does not have a history of supporting.
• Robbery caused by doors being left unlocked or because of people they are letting into their home.
• Getting lost of wandering off.

Choosing an Elderly Dementia Facility

One of the most important considerations is whether the senior care facility you choose cares for people with all stages of dementia. You don’t want to place them somewhere and then have to move them again when their disease progresses. This could be both frightening and heartbreaking, so make sure they can stay in their new Costa Mesa or Yorba Linda home for the rest of their lives.

You want to choose a senior care facility where the staff is specifically trained to care for individuals with dementia, and they can handle the associated behaviors such as combativeness and sun downing.

There should be specific safety precautions in place for these patients to prevent them from wandering, and these can include locked dementia units or personal monitoring systems.

Paying for Elderly Dementia Senior Care

The majority of families pay for their loved one’s residential care themselves. There are benefits that cover residential senior care, and those include long-term care insurance, Veterans benefits, and Medicaid. Medicare only pays for short-term skilled care and does not pay for the cost of long-term residential care.

At Senior Home Advocates, we have the expertise and experience to help you make the best decisions possible for your loved one with elderly dementia. We’re a comprehensive senior care agency, and we’ll be with you every step of the way.

Just How Many Seniors Are There?

The age of “Baby Boomers” is giving way to a sharp increase in the number of retirees and seniors. The technical age to be called a senior is age 65+. Baby boomers officially began retiring at age 65+ in 2006. It is estimated by the Administration on Aging, that by the year 2030 (just 15 years from now) there will be about 72.1 million older Americans, a growth increase of 19% from 2000. The number grows to an estimated 88.5 million by the year 2050. This increase in senior citizens will have a profound effect on many industries, especially healthcare.

It’s interesting to attempt to attribute the increase to the number of babies that were born post World War II, in what is considered the “baby boom era”. However, we need to also take into account that people are living longer than ever before. With advances being made in medicine, people are living on average a full 15+ years past what they did in earlier eras.

From 2003 to 2004, statistics comprised found that 351,000 seniors joined the 65+ group. 3.7 million seniors who resided in the United States in 2004 were foreign born.

4.9 million Seniors were over the age of 85 in 2004 and of those for every 45 that were men, 100 were female.

Where do the most senior citizens call home? The state of Florida is home to the most people age 65+. Of course, the good folks in the Sunshine State list Tampa-St. Petersburg’s area of having the largest population of seniors, at 18.2 percent. Drastically different in climate, Pittsburgh, PA is the second place spot, where 18 percent of the population is over 65.

Seniors do love their warm sunny days, whether they spend them on the golf course, taking a class, or walking on the beach. In Orange County, CA, folk’s age 65-74 increased 21.6% from 2000, age 75-84 increased 15%, and those age 85+ increased by 45.2%. Orange county retirees average a median household income of $47,992.

Also worth noting is that 343,308 households in Orange, County, CA have one or more persons age 60 and older.

 As a large number of the population continues to barrel toward retirement, continued growth in many industries is expected to rise. However, none changing as much as the healthcare field. Especially those that work in geriatric care, medical facilities are also expected to increase. Places like assisted living facilities, senior centers, adult daycares, and other businesses set up to help take care of our aged citizens will begin to sprout up and increase in numbers.

It’s not all about the numbers though. Our aging relatives and friends have a legacy and life lessons that we need to know. Spending time, listening, and befriending our senior citizens is the perfect way to show our caring and respect. It is a task we should not take lightly. One day, it will be us on the other side of the aging fence.

Coping with Dementia

People who are in the early stages of their dementia have a more difficult time participating in social activities than those who have been suffering with this illness for a longer period of time. Teepa Snow, a dementia education specialist, believes that this phenomenon occurs due to the fact that patients in the first stages of this illness are more aware of their clinical state, which in turn inhibits their social skills. The awareness of something being wrong is extremely hard to overcome, which will negatively effect  interactions with other people.

By creating daily activities that help patients bond with their caregivers is a great opportunity for them to reach a daily sense of happiness and fulfillment. Teepa has over three decades of experience in the caregiving field, and she is on the road most of the year educating healthcare providers and families on ways to interact with their loved ones on a more personal level. She explains that by establishing meaningful interactions, you allow the patients to go through this illness with dignity. Teepa  also teaches the importance of balance when creating a schedule for people with dementia. Caregivers have to be very careful to not overstimulate patients, and allow time for them to de-stress, as well as engage in a wide range of fitness activities such as walking and balance.

Ms. Snow also points out the  importance of setting up a stable activity schedule for people who are living with dementia. She describes patients who become easily overwhelmed and must be introduced to a balanced day that can give them a chance to relax and focus. Separating people who are in different stages of the disease is also important, because they could become irritated and more confused by their surroundings.

It is no easy feat to become a caregiver for people with dementia- whether you are a professional caregiver or a family member. Local groups and online communities are a good source of support for anyone that needs an extra hand. Teepa Snow also suggests that people need to continuously readjust their expectations and diversify the activities schedule as their loved ones progress towards the disease.

Is Your Family Resisting Getting Senior Care?

It’s more common then you might think… mom or dad now need senior care but you can’t get it done because your sibling is fiercely resisting all of your efforts.  Probably over 50% of the families we see at Senior Home Advocates are stymied because their family members are fighting with each other.  The adult children usually haven’t communicated in a long time and are suddenly thrown into a stressful situation that takes true cooperation and family conflict resolution.  Many siblings simply can’t accept each other’s ideas…it’s a little bit of “not invented here” syndrome or one sibling is resented because they were the”favored” child or maybe one has been financially mooching off of mom and simply can’t be trusted by the others.

First thing to remember is that nobody is adequately prepared for the challenge of having to arrange for an aging parent’s care. It’s not talked about in our schools, our churches, or our popular media and yet we all have parents!  Take comfort in knowing that you’re not the only family resisting getting senior care or going through this; there are millions of others facing the same challenge as you are right now.

Next, seek out help and don’t try to do this alone.  You need someone in the middle when siblings are at each other’s throats. You can deal with family conflict and have a positive successful result. Professional case managers have lots of experience in dealing with how to defuse these situations.  At Senior Home Advocates we have found that the best technique is to call a family meeting and let the financial facts do the talking.  There’s something about having an outside party with facts and figures that makes everybody willing to lower their defenses and listen.  We use a simple tool that compares each possible care scenario side by side. By seeing how the finances change for each scenario and how certain government financial benefit programs would work under each possible scenario, families have the information they need to make a joint decision…because with the right information, the right answer becomes fairly obvious.

A family meeting with a professional – acting as a third party creates an environment where a decision can be made “then and there” and witnessed by each other.  After that, the case manager plays a critical role in answering questions as the care plan is implemented or the care needs change.  In many cases when a well trained care manager is involved, families can actually experience some positive growth in the relationship they have with each other. At Senior Home Advocates we provide you with an initial consultation that is free of charge and will give the whole family a chance to experience how effective our techniques can be in breaking any log jams they might be experiencing.  You can arrange for an initial consultation by calling us at (714) 793-0527 and we will set an appointment that is convenient for you.