Top Ten Ways to Manage Alzheimer’s: From Onset to Ongoing

1.  Develop an Understanding of the Disease –
   • Ask the doctor to converse with you in simple terms. avoiding medical terminology that you may not know the meaning of.
   • Ask him/her to present the information in small, easier to digest portions.
   • Ask the doctor for take home literature.
   • Do your own research on the internet or at the library, try www.alz.org, www.gmhfonline.org, or www.AAGPonline.org.
   • Talk to others – Join an Alzheimer’s Care Group or talk to people that you know who have had experience caring for someone with Alzheimer’s
2. Be Aware of and Take Care of Caregiver Stress
   • Know when you need help – and ask for it!
   • Do things for yourself to stay mentally and physically healthy
   • Talk about it – Don’t hold the stress in, tell someone who will listen and sympathize
3. Have Patience
   • With your loved one who is suffering from Alzheimer’s
   • As well as yourself
4. Take Classes
   • There are resources out there for you to find out what works best when taking care of a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at different stages. You may have been doing just fine until your loved one progressed to a new stage of the disease and you felt like you’d lost all sense of control. Educate yourself on how to handle new and later developments.
5. Consider Pharmaceutical Help
   • Your loved one may benefit from new medications that can help delay the symptoms of this disease. Behavioral medications are also available to help your loved one manage their specific symptoms of the disease.
6. Utilize Physical and Occupational Therapy
   • If you rest, you rust, right? This is also true for Alzheimer’s patients.  There are many places to receive therapy. Companies like Boca Home Care Services will send staff to your loved ones’ place of residence to assist them in their therapy. Therapy can be as simple as allowing your loved one to exercise their maximum level of independence while performing ADL’s (activities of daily living) like bathing, brushing teeth, dressing, applying lotion and combing hair. It can be easier at times to do all this for the patient in order to get done more quickly, but that is not in the their best interest for the most part.
7. Try to Manage Sleep Habits
   • Alzheimer’s can affect a person’s sleep habits. Caregiver’s can do their best to help their loved one to avoid daytime napping and use sleep aids at night like keeping the room dark, playing soft music, or maintaining a calming before bed routine.
8. Use Visual communication – Although verbal communication and complex thinking skills may fade quickly, using picture cues to prompt activity or direction can help your loved one function more easily.
9. Art Therapy – Creative outlets are important for helping your loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s to express their emotions. They may find coloring, clay molding, or listening to music a useful way to stimulate them mentally and decrease levels of frustration.
10. Keep the Environment Supportive 
    • Validate your loved ones’ expressions of feeling
    • Keep the stress elsewhere

Following these ten caregiving solutions can help make caring for your loved one with Alzheimer’s a little easier.