Long-term care can help your loved one live safely and independently as their needs evolve when dementia progresses. Assisted living and memory care communities are able to provide 24-hour caregiver support, which ensures that
your loved one is in good hands and reduces the mental and emotional toll of care on primary caregivers. As staff members take on the day-to-day caregiving responsibilities, family members can better enjoy
quality time with their loved one.
Is It Dementia?
Do you think you or a loved one may have dementia? Get an initial
assessment of the changes you’re noticing.
Memory loss affects each person differently, and senior living
communities can help meet your loved one’s individual needs and
abilities at any stage of dementia. With trained staff and healthcare
professionals, assisted living with specialized memory support can
build cognitive reserve in the brain. And by joining a memory care
community earlier in the diagnosis, your loved one can take part in
enriching activities that help maintain cognitive function for longer.
In an engaging environment, your loved one benefits from high-quality
care and specialized mental, physical and social activity programs.
Regular opportunities for socialization and other outings can help
reduce isolation and depression—a proven strategy for retaining
cognitive abilities.
By entering a senior living community in the early stages of cognitive
impairment, your loved one can spend time enjoying an engaged
lifestyle while they grow familiar with their new home and care team.
Aging in place
promotes successful aging and reduces stress and confusion on your loved
one down the road. With that in mind, it’s important to choose a
community that can support your loved one’s changing needs as dementia
progresses.
Psychosocial Benefits of Assisted Living
Beyond help with daily activities, assisted living communities provide
much more regular social interaction and opportunities for mental
stimulation. Both are proven to reduce the risk of cognitive decline
as your loved one joins dance and movement classes, learns a new craft
or elements of a different language, or takes part in debates and
trivia exercises —just a few of the activities offered in programs
like Circle of Friends®. Providing these engagement opportunities
within small groups, among peers who have similar abilities, builds
confidence and helps people with dementia feel more at ease, allowing
them to participate more fully and frequently. Regular socialization
keeps communication and critical thinking skills sharp by stimulating
key parts of the brain.
Benefits of social network
A social network provides
support and an outlet needed to maintain function. With a built-in
network of peers and care staff, assisted living offers constant
opportunities for socialization and participation in therapeutic
activities. And with more ways for your loved one to engage with the
world around them, they’re more likely to build cognitive reserve to
improve efficiency and flexibility for processing information.
Maintaining cognitive function
Assisted living communities typically
have robust programs in place for maintaining cognitive reserve.
Mental fitness: Regularly scheduled activities and games give your
loved one the ability to frequently do something new and challenging
for the brain. Staff is trained on each of the stages of dementia and
can tailor programming accordingly to provide the right level of
activity that challenges critical thinking, analytical thinking or
memory skills.
Reduce stress: Being in the same environment,
interacting with the same people and sticking to a set schedule can
greatly reduce stress on your loved one. Chronic stress causes bodies
to release hormones that eventually affect memory, and stress can also
lead to poor sleep quality. By addressing the common root causes of
stress in people with dementia, assisted living can make your loved
one feel more at ease and confident interacting with others throughout
their day.
Creating a sense of purpose: We all need a reason to get
up in the morning. Feeling that your life has meaning and that you’re
in control fosters positive attitudes and emotions. Assisted living can give your loved one a sense of purpose and help days pass more smoothly by introducing opportunities for greeting new residents, decorating or preparing
for events, helping create or assemble items for community service projects or completing small chores.
Physical activity
The most essential factor to maintaining a high quality
of life is physical activity, which builds bone density, improves
muscle strength and reduces anxiety. When in an assisted living
community, your loved one has daily access to a variety of physical
activities that are well-suited to their abilities. Walking groups,
gardening clubs, dance classes and tai chi are just some of the
options that are commonly offered. For those with more advanced
dementia, trained staff guide residents through seated exercises or
walks from room to room to keep blood moving and bodies fit.
Nutrition
Menus at assisted living communities are specifically
designed to offer an optimal range of nutrients to encourage blood
flow to the brain and overall health. Preparing healthy, nutritious meals and helping a loved one with dementia navigate the dining experience can be time-consuming and stressful for at-home caregivers. The dining team at an
assisted living community has the time, education and experience to expertly prepare appetizing meals that meet your loved one’s needs. Trained staff are on hand to guide residents through mealtimes with prompts that encourage
eating and to provide assistance if your loved one needs extra support to eat successfully and stay strong.
Mild Dementia Programming
Some memory care communities will include specific programming for
residents in the early stages of memory loss. When cognitive changes
start, it is common for someone with dementia to withdraw and isolate
themselves, but these behaviors are linked to accelerated decline in
all physical and mental areas.
With therapeutic mental fitness and socialization programs, memory
care staff members can help your loved one build cognitive reserve,
maintain mental function and increase engagement.
Regularly engaging in mentally stimulating activities can help
maintain cognitive function. Memory care programs like Whole Brain
Fitness are designed to improve brain health for each resident by
nurturing and engaging mind, body and spirit in ways tailored to each
person’s abilities. By combining nutrition and physical exercise,
mental workouts and lifelong learning, reduced environmental stress, a
strong social network and a sense of purpose, programs like these can
help preserve cognitive abilities and allow residents to age
successfully.
Programs like Circle of Friends® are designed for residents who have
experienced cognitive changes and need more support but don’t require
a secured memory care environment. In this kind of environment,
residents may participate in more structured activities designed to
help maintain cognitive function. Activities are therapeutic, with
attainable goals and conducted in a small group setting to encourage
residents to stay involved, maintain function, build confidence and
have happy, fulfilling days.
Secured Memory Care
When dementia progresses to later stages where confusion, wandering
and delusions are more likely, a secure memory care community can
provide caregivers with added peace of mind. Secured memory care like
the Memory Care Neighborhood usually features smaller, self-contained
areas that are more navigable for residents, which helps foster
feelings of independence while minimizing the risk of falling or
getting lost. This gives residents the freedom to explore and enjoy a
sense of normalcy while staying safe and close to trained staff.
Sometimes, the concept of a secure memory care community can feel
strange or overwhelming to the caregiver, because to them it
represents the next step in their loved one’s journey. While making
the transition to secure memory care can be hard to accept, in many
ways it actually gives your loved one back some of their independence,
because the environment is less stressful and better suited to their
cognitive function. Secure memory care is specifically designed to put
your loved one at ease; it’s familiar to your loved one because it
maintains the same look and feel as the rest of the care community on
a much smaller scale that is more easily navigable. It has its own
dining and outdoor areas, its own enrichment activities and its own
community—with assistance tailored to different cognitive abilities.
Care communities that specialize in moderate-to late-stage dementia
tend to feature much higher staff-to-resident ratios to ensure that
residents are appropriately supervised and regularly engaged. In
addition to amenities commonly included in assisted living
communities—meal service, transportation, social and physical
activities, housekeeping—secure memory care will generally include
medication management, physical or occupational therapists on staff,
licensed nurses on staff, and environmental modifications that help
keep your loved one safe.
Your loved one will also likely participate in more personalized
programming designed to accommodate their individual mental and
physical abilities.