Resource Library
Content with Topic Family Caregiving .
Resources
Spring Increases Risk of Dementia-Related Wandering
For caregivers of someone with memory and thinking problems, the change of seasons from winter to spring can raise unique concerns. The same freedom that warmer weather provides can also increase the risk of wandering for those with dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 60 percent of persons with dementia will wander at least once; many will wander repeatedly. As risky and dangerous as wandering is, caregivers can take steps to reduce the risk.
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Communication Aids to Support People with Dementia and IDD
One of the biggest challenges facing caregivers and loved ones of someone with moderate to severe dementia and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is communication. Both conditions can affect a person’s ability to understand what is being said and to respond in a clear, appropriate and easy-to-understand way. Because communication can become so challenging, many caregivers and loved ones make the mistake of getting visibly frustrated, avoiding communication as much as possible and even speaking as if the person with dementia and IDD isn’t in the room and by nature can’t understand anything being said.
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How Caregivers Can Help Older Adults Retain Independence
Lack or loss of control can be a very frustrating feeling, and it’s one most people have to contend with as they age. A natural reaction to loss of control is resistance. However, for those of us who are caregivers, that resistance can make providing the support a loved one needs challenging. It can feel like having to do daily battle against a loved one’s stubbornness, and as frustration mounts, it can become easy to forget just how much personal freedoms mean to a loved one and how hard it would be for anyone—including us—to give them up.
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Caring for Yourself as a Caregiver with Mini-Breaks
Being a caregiver of an older adult with a chronic illness can be especially challenging. Trying to meet both their healthcare and safety needs can often take up most of a caregivers’ time.  Letting your loved ones’ care needs overshadow your own, however, can lead to resentment and impatience and can impact your own health. How can caregivers step away from their caregiving role and still ensure supervision and safety? Enter the mini-break, a small bitesize rest period that provides time to step out of the caregiving role without leaving the one you care for to do so.
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How to Handle Advance Directives When a Loved One Has Dementia
Advance directives—legal documents that allow one to express their end-of-life wishes regarding finances and medical care—are important for all of us to consider as we age as a way of retaining decision-making authority no matter what happens to us. However, end-of-life can be a very difficult thing to confront. Even though advance directives are designed to help us protect our wishes and the futures of our loved ones, it's easy to delay making them until a health crisis happens. But what if that health crisis is dementia?
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