Couple lives with Alzheimer’s disease hand in hand
Married for nearly seven decades, Eloise and Ward Hill both have Alzheimer’s. Hoping to show the day-to-day lives of people living with Alzheimer’s, a photographer documented the time the couple spends together in a memory care facility as they face the disease.
http://www.optimumseniorcare.com/services/alzheimerscare.php
Agenda for 2016 Annual Research Symposium – Register today!
Join us on October 11 at the Chicago Botanic Garden to gain knowledge and insights on Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related research topics designed to increase awareness and enhance skill sets. View our full Symposium agenda, including session descriptions: Family Track sessions are more general in nature and contain simple medical terminology while Advanced Professional I & II sessions are clinical and research focused. Sign up today!
http://www.optimumseniorcare.com/services/alzheimerscare.php
Hospice care may be right for someone with Alzheimer’s
Hospice care focuses on comfort and dignity at the end of life. Rather than providing treatment, the primary purpose of hospice care is to manage pain and other symptoms. It involves care and support services that can be of great benefit to people in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease and their families.
Hospice care focuses on comfort and dignity at the end of life; it involves care and support services that can be of great benefit to people in the final stages of Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their families.
Hospice providers with expertise in dementia can help families understand what to expect in the final stages of Alzheimer’s and provide support throughout the end-of-life process.
Hospice is a special way of caring for people who are terminally ill — and for providing support to their family. Rather than providing treatment, the primary purpose of hospice care is to manage pain and other symptoms during the last six months of life.
Hospice care is provided by a team of specially trained providers, including doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, counselors, clergy and volunteers. Family is often very involved in the care.
Examples of the care hospice teams provide include:
The majority of hospice care is provided at home or in a nursing facility. There are also some free-standing hospice facilities and hospice units within hospitals in certain parts of the country.
We Can Help
Your local Alzheimer’s Association can provide referrals to hospice care in your area.
The Hospice Foundation of America has information on how to locate a hospice, questions to ask when selecting a hospice, and resources related to hospice care and grief.
The National Hospice Foundation website offers guidance in finding and selecting a hospice program.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization has a variety of free resources on topics including advance care planning, hospice and palliative care, and grief and loss.
To begin hospice care, an individual must have a life expectancy of six months or less. A physician’s referral is needed. If you believe your family member is in need of hospice services, communicate this to the physician currently providing care. You also can begin a self-referral process by contacting local hospice programs, which can be located at www.hospicedirectory.org.
Before hospice care begins, the hospice team meets with the referring physician as well as the family to create an individualized care plan. Once care begins, the family has 24-hour on-call access to hospice staff.
Hospice care can be stopped at any time.
Hospice services are usually available for as long as they are needed. If someone receiving hospice care lives beyond six months, services are usually still covered by Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurers as long as a physician recertifies that the person is terminally ill and still meets hospice care requirements.
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Hospice is usually covered under Medicare, as well as many Medicaid and private insurance plans.
For detailed information on Hospice Medicare Benefits, download our handout (PDF).
With Medicare, there are no deductibles and only limited coinsurance payments for hospice services.
Medicare covers hospice care if:
In some cases where a person does not have coverage, community donations make services possible.
http://www.optimumseniorcare.com/services/alzheimerscare.php
My dad was only 65 when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. People at work began noticing he wasn’t himself until one day he couldn’t remember what to do for his job and they had to call Mom. Dad didn’t want us telling other people he had dementia because he didn’t want to be treated differently. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so hard to explain to people what it feels like to watch a person you love lose a part of themselves
I Walk to End Alzheimer’s because of my dad, who is in the first stage of Alzheimer’s. My dad was only 65 when diagnosed. At home, we didn’t really notice anything wrong because he always did his normal routine, but as time went on, people at work began noticing that he was not being himself. One day at work, he just suddenly couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do for his job, and that had never been an issue before. His work had to call and talk to my mom after it happened a few times. Then when my dad was diagnosed, his employers were nice enough to do a layoff time leading up to the date that he could retire from their business.
There are times he forgets and gets upset; never really knowing if it is something he truly forgot or just the dementia. When my dad starts talking about the past, I let him. When he starts to remember something, I don’t say if it was from yesterday or from way back when, I just let him remember. Even if he repeats things, I still listen. I usually won’t stop him unless he is making himself upset. I see he still wants to do normal things, like mow my lawn, because it’s one thing he has not forgotten how to do. I’ve watched him struggle with other everyday tasks like reading, and now he doesn’t even read the paper anymore like he used to do.
He was always there for me when I needed him. It kills me to see him lose his temper so easily, when I know he was always pretty hard to aggravate. My girls now don’t even know how to act around their grandpa because they don’t know how he’ll react. They usually try to base it off the way he is acting. If he seems to be in relatively good mood, then my girls will play along with their grandpa. Yet, there are times he starts out in a good mood, and then soon turns upset. This is why we need to find a cure. Grandkids shouldn’t have to worry about how to act around their grandparents. They should always be ready to go hang with them and have fun. This is the reason why, back in February of 2015, my oldest daughter asked her volleyball coach to do an Alzheimer’s fundraiser with the team. They were able to donate the money they raised to two Alzheimer’s homes in Effingham, IL. They were also awarded for being the first grade school by IESA to do an Alzheimer’s fundraiser game. We do what we can in my family to help the cause.
Alzheimer’s disease is a topic that most people don’t want to talk about. My dad didn’t want us telling other people that he had dementia because he didn’t want them to treat him differently or walk on eggshells around him. I think that is part of the reason why it’s so hard to explain to people what it feels like to watch a person you love lose a part of themselves.
I participate in the Bloomington-Normal Walk to End Alzheimer’s because I don’t want someone else to go through what I have gone through. We need to find a cure so the past doesn’t get lost forever. We will never stop walking. We will walk until a cure is found. This is Why I Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
http://www.optimumseniorcare.com/services/alzheimerscare.php
Woman honors her mother by fighting Alzheimer’s disease for future generations
Judy Steed’s mother, Marilyn, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her late 60s, and died with the disease a year ago at 82. Judy is now in her mid-60s; after what happened to her mother, she doesn’t want anyone else to have to go through the same experience. She’s participating in the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® to honor her mother and to raise funds and awareness to fight this devastating disease
My mother Marilyn was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her late 60s, but I recognized that something was wrong in her mid-60s. She had been displaying signs of nervousness and was more forgetful than usual. She had always been a very outgoing and confident woman who dressed very fashionably. One day I noticed that her skirt hem was hanging and that she wasn’t taking the same care in her appearance.
My mother succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease one year ago. She was 82 when she died.
Now I am in my mid-60s. After experiencing what happened to my mother, I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through what she did. When she began wandering and leaving their home, my stepfather couldn’t keep up with her, and she was moved to a memory care facility. While there, she broke her hip. That led to three years in bed, never walking or talking again.
Every story about Alzheimer’s is heartbreaking.
We all have to watch someone we love slowly disappear. My family wasn’t even given a respite. One year ago, my stepfather too was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Our family’s first reaction was: “Oh no, not again!” It seems like almost no one we know is unaffected by this disease in some way. That is why I Walk.
I have Walked in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s for eight years and have raised over $35,000.
I am an artist and have put on shows in which I have donated 100% of the proceeds to the cause. I collect for Forget-Me-Not Days and traveled to Springfield, Illinois this year to implore legislators to procure more funding for the Alzheimer’s Association. I never knew that raising funds for Alzheimer’s would become my passion. I Walk because my mother was my best friend. I Walk because she couldn’t Walk for herself. I Walk because I know she would have done the same thing for me.
It feels like we have rounded a corner. It seems like Alzheimer’s is finally getting the attention it deserves.
I have faith that a cure will be found. That takes a lot of funding and research, but I believe that if everyone who has any connection to Alzheimer’s would Walk and spread the word by advocating on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association, the cure might come faster. I have rarely met anyone who hasn’t been touched by this memory-robbing disease. We need to fight for all those people who can no longer speak for themselves, like my mother and so many others. We must Walk.
About the Author: Together with her family and friends, Judy Steed is participating in Walk to End Alzheimer’s with her team “Marching for Marilyn.” You can visit Judy’s Walk page here.
http://www.optimumseniorcare.com/services/alzheimerscare.php