Episcopal Church Home - Louisville

Today’s personal care options for seniors are very different than those of 50, 25 or even 10 years ago. A perfect example of the beautiful new face of senior living? The impeccably updated Memory Care Center of Excellence at Louisville, Kentucky’s Episcopal Church Home. Residents moved into this new community in September upon completion of Phase I of the comprehensive renovation project, and have been enjoying the many benefits of living there over the past few months.

Here’s a closer look at what makes ECH’s Memory Care Center of Excellence a shining standout among person-centered care communities.

Many older adults voice a strong desire to “age in place.” However, while it’s sometimes possible to accommodate this preference through measures ranging from adaptive home remodels to in-home care services, the reality is that the time may come when it’s simply not safe for your aging loved one to continue to live alone. Wondering how you'll know when that time is imminent? Here’s a closer look at the issue.

All long-term care communities aren’t created equal. Which begs the question: How do you find the best fit for your loved one? Read on for a roundup of eight things to ask when choosing long-term care for your parent.

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.