Receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is difficult for seniors and their families. As the disease worsens, daily tasks can become confusing and frustrating. But with help from skilled Alzheimer’s care specialists, seniors can change their daily routines to stay independent, lower their stress, and improve their quality of life.
Establishing Predictable Daily Schedules
One of the best things that caregivers can do for seniors is to assist them in setting up regular daily schedules. Alzheimer’s disease makes it hard for the brain to understand time and order events, so knowing what’s coming next helps seniors better manage their day-to-day. Caregivers help seniors set up disciplined routines that include regular times for waking up, eating, taking their prescriptions, and going to bed. This uniformity helps clear up any uncertainty and gives them a sense of order that might help with the stress that comes with memory loss.
Simplifying Complex Tasks
Care providers are quite good at breaking down difficult tasks into smaller, easier-to-manage steps. When cognitive function degrades, even simple things like getting dressed or making breakfast can become too much to handle. These professionals help seniors stay independent longer by breaking down each task and making step-by-step guidelines. They can recommend putting clothes in the order they should be worn or organizing kitchen goods in a way that makes it easy to find everything they need for breakfast.
Creating Memory-Friendly Environments
The physical environment is also very important for helping seniors with Alzheimer’s. Care professionals look at living environments and suggest changes that will make them safer and more independent. This could mean putting labels on drawers and cabinets, getting rid of clutter that makes things confusing, installing better lighting to reduce shadows that can make seniors anxious, and making calendars or whiteboards that show the day’s itinerary. These changes to the environment work with changes to daily life to make a supportive space.
Building in Meaningful Activities
For seniors with Alzheimer’s, staying engaged and having a purpose is important. Alzheimer’s care providers help find activities that fit with the senior’s interests, skills, and past experiences. They make sure that seniors have chances to have fun and feel accomplished by including these significant activities in their daily lives. Gardening, listening to music, looking through photo albums, or doing light exercise are all hobbies that help keep them organized and improve their mental health.
Changing Routines as Needs Change
As mentioned, Alzheimer’s worsens over time, so what helps now might not work in six months. Alzheimer’s Care providers monitor seniors’ progress and make modifications as their cognitive capacities change. They also help family members understand when changes need to be made and put new plans into action without causing too much trouble. This flexible method makes sure that routines continue to do their job of lowering stress and encouraging independence as the condition gets worse.
Supporting Both Seniors and Caregivers
Alzheimer’s care specialists know that supporting both seniors and their loved ones is probably the most important thing for making changes to routines work. They teach family members about the value of being consistent, how to gently communicate with each other without becoming angry, and how to deal with difficult behaviors that may come up. Professionals also make sure that changed routines can be kept up by giving caregivers information and skills.
Seniors with Alzheimer’s can still feel dignified, comfortable, and happy with the correct help and well-planned routines. Alzheimer’s care professionals are important mentors on this path because they assist families in dealing with the difficulties of Alzheimer’s with care and knowledge.
If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring Alzheimer’s Care in Tigard, OR, please contact the caring staff at Integrity In-Home Care. Call today at (503) 660-3755.
Sources:
https://abilitycentral.org/article/alzheimers-quick-facts-5-things-know
https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/daily-care/daily-care-plan
https://www.alzheimers.gov/life-with-dementia/tips-caregivers
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-caregiving/adapting-activities-people-alzheimers-disease