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. 

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. 

All memory care centers aren’t created equal. In fact, according to Kansas Advocates for Better Care executive director Mitzi McFatrich, “There are no consistent standards for memory care.”

The takeaway: Finding a trustworthy community can make a significant difference in the quality of life for your aging loved one. Wondering what to be aware of during the selection process? Keep an eye out for these seven red flags while touring prospective memory care centers.

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.

Louisville families faced with the need to move a senior loved one into residential memory care often struggle to anticipate the true cost of that care. Monthly costs for assisted living and memory can vary, based on geographic location. It’s a significant financial strain for many Kentucky families. But another way of looking at it is to consider the value of that care.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are never easy for families to deal with. In addition to the physical and mental tolls they exact, they can cause quite a bit of uncertainty and worry.

Will my spouse be able to care for me? Is my mom or dad still able to safely age at home right now? When should we consider placement?

These are all questions people ask themselves after a diagnosis. In most cases, a move to (or placement in) a retirement community is an inevitability. And it’s best to plan ahead so that your family is ready when the time is right.