Episcopal Church Home - Louisville

There are some days that I can’t get the motivation to call Mom on the phone. I never know how she will be. Will she be too tired, will she be confused, will she feel bad, will she be in pain? Some days it’s too stressful for me to make the call. Then comes the guilt...again. Feeling selfish.

She is so afraid. She is so afraid of forgetting...everything, everyone, herself. Afraid of the indignity that comes in the late stages of the disease. 

The holiday season is upon us. And while the season brings the promise of all things merry and bright, it’s not without its challenges — particularly if you have a parent with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to minimize stress and maximize joy over the next few weeks. Here are five tips aimed at helping you handle the holidays while caring for an aging loved one with Alzheimer’s.  

When a senior in your family is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of cognitive loss, choosing the right memory care can be a challenging process.

Opting for placement in a senior living community like Episcopal Church Home (ECH) in Louisville might be the best course of action, but you’ll naturally have many questions about which care center might be the right fit. 

Family members who are new to dealing with a loved one's dementia often ask us: "How do you talk with someone with memory loss?"

It's easy: approach talking to someone with dementia the way you would approach talking with a child.

That doesn't mean taking on a patronizing or condescending tone or addressing those with dementia in an undignified manner. It does mean using simpler language and maintaining an encouraging tone, positive expression, eye contact and open gestures. And it means exercising patience.

If your senior loved one is living in the Louisville area with dementia, Alzheimer's, or age-related memory loss, and could benefit from memory care, how do you go about finding the best memory care facility?

We get asked this question all the time.

And we empathize with you. The process of making a placement decision can feel especially stressful for the spouse, partner, or family caregivers of a loved one with dementia.

It's the holidays — the time when many families separated by distance come back together again for visits. That also makes it the time of year when many children of senior adults notice that something's not quite right with their parent's memory.

Dementia can be insidious. It creeps up on people, sometimes so slowly that they don't notice the changes in their loved one's behavior or cognition.

A new diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s is often as hard for families to accept and process as it is for the seniors with those diseases.

Seeing the progression of memory loss in an older loved one is disconcerting — even frightening — especially if it proceeds quickly, as it often does in severe Alzheimer’s cases. Residential memory care can sometimes help to slow it; other times, it’s not as effective.

What should I do after I’ve been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia?

If you’ve recently learned you are showing early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, that’s undoubtedly what you’re asking yourself.

Age-related dementia is a difficult condition to manage. Alzheimer’s dementia can be even more so. Both rob seniors of their memories and their cognitive functions, although Alzheimer’s often progresses more quickly and, occasionally, strikes earlier.

Nearly 5 million American seniors have Alzheimer's today, and as the Baby Boom generation reaches peak retirement, that number is expected to grow. In fact, by 2025, according to the Alzheimer's Association, over 13 million Americans will be living with the disease.

There’s a lot of confusion in the public about the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We encounter that confusion often among our Louisville memory care residents’ family members and friends.

And it’s natural that there should be confusion, as the differences aren’t always clear to people who don’t have a medical background. But it can also cause difficulties in providing the right care when family members or friends don’t understand why a particular treatment works for one person, but not for their loved one.