When a loved one is diagnosed with alzheimers, finding the proper alzheimers care can be a strenuous and fraught decision. After all, everyone wants their loved ones to be well cared for and given as much dignity and independence as is possible. Not all alzheimers care is created equal, it is true, but it is also often true that the best alzheimers care exists inside a nursing facility, where they can offer memory care facilities and specialized care. Memory care centers can work directly with patients and their families to provide alzheimers care, and can take some of the stress off of the family, the burden of providing care that they are not equipped to give. After all, unpaid caregivers, often family members or close friends, provide nearly twenty billion hours of care per year, if not more. This means that family members must sacrifice much of their lives and sometimes even their careers in order to care for family members afflicted by dementia. Many of these family members do not have the resources that specialized caregivers working in a nursing home or memory care facility would have. Therefore, it is in the best interest of many patients to be in a well reviewed nursing facility, where they are often able to have more independence than they would in a home setting simply because there are more resources and specialized caregivers. Memory care facilities that provide alzheimers care tend to be more regulated as well, in 23 out of the 50 states, providing families even more assurance that their loved ones will be well cared for.
Unfortunately, Alzheimers and the need for alzheimers care is not uncommon among the older population. Though there are more than one hundred different types of dementia it is possible to be diagnosed with, Alzheimers makes up at least 80% of all dementia cases and more than five million people in the United States alone have been diagnosed with it. While the most people diagnosed with Alzheimers are elderly, early onset alzheimers, or those diagnosed with alzheimers under the age of 65, is becoming more and more common. Today, around 200,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with early onset alzheimers. Alzheimers can be difficult to handle by oneself, and all alzheimers patients will end up in full time care. Memory care facilities often monitor patients twenty four hours of the day when necessary, making sure that they are safe and as healthy as possible in their new environment.
Dementia is a frightening diagnosis, and it is one that many family members are not equipped to deal with, especially as the dementia patient requires more and more intensive care. Fortunately places like memory care facilities can provide that care and more, giving dementia patients more autonomy and independence than they would have with their family caregivers, simply because of the additional resources provided by a memory care facility. Memory care facilities can also provide care twenty four hours in ways that family members are often not able to do.
