Memory Care
What is Memory Care?
Now that dementia is becoming more prevalent, due to the rapid rise in longevity, many senior living communities are dedicating resources to caring for individuals with decreased cognition. Memory Care can be a standalone facility or can exists as a wing within assisted living communities or nursing homes.
The difference between memory care and Assisted Living is that Memory Care is specifically for people with Alzheimer’s disease, or related dementia, because they require a higher level of skilled care and supervision. Memory care units, therefore, offer most of the same services as assisted living, but with increased supervision.
Many Memory Care centers will also offer programs designed to slow the progression of this degenerative disease, or alleviate symptoms associated with dementia, such as agitation and aggression. Sensory stimulation, cognitive therapies, physical and occupational therapies are all included in these types of programs. There has been much positive research regarding alternative therapies such as music and art therapy, which help reduce agitation, although no long-term benefits have been identified. Most therapies and programs are performed in group settings, which allows for greater supervision as well as necessary socialization.
What’s a Memory Care Community Like?
Most Memory Care communities usually offer shared and private spaces. The facilities provide meals as well as housekeeping in addition to access to a wide range of fun activities and social events designed to improve cognition, or at least slow the onset of dementia symptoms.
Memory care residences are also constructed differently, with enhanced security to prevent behavior like wandering. The hallways often run circular because patients with dementia will become upset when they encounter a wall. There aren’t individual kitchens in memory care, to cut down on stress and accidents. The colors, lighting, and even accouterments like fish tanks create an atmosphere that is more soothing for people with dementia
How do I know if Memory Care is right for my loved one?
There are also the psychological and emotional impacts of dementia-related conditions on a person’s spouse, loved ones and family. Denial, emotionally driven conversations and the thought that caregiving can’t be that difficult, all add to the challenge of making mindful, long-term care plans.
1. Alzheimer’s, dementia, or another dementia-related condition diagnosis
Everyone is forgetful at times, and this forgetfulness increases with age. However, routine forgetting of important dates, names, how to get to familiar places, to pay bills, etc. is not normal. These are often the first signs of dementia and should trigger an appointment with your physician. Once a diagnosis is given, it’s time to begin having conversations about memory care.
2. Caregiver stress
Caregiving for a loved one with memory care is a 24/7 occupation. Without engaging in regular respite care, it becomes impossible to sustain the situation. Even with qualified, in-home care providers, those with mid to later stages of memory loss require increasing levels of medical assistance, and the enormity of unceasing tasks is more than almost any household can accommodate.
3. A decline in overall health
As memory loss sets in, so do the abilities to drive a car, make grocery lists, prepare food, remember daily medications, or even remember to eat. Losing track of days and times has a disastrous effect on the circadian rhythm, contributing to Sundowner’s syndrome, insomnia and other sleep disorders that take on toll on one’s health and wellbeing.
4. Little to no social life
The social life of someone with dementia shrinks considerably, exacerbating and even accelerating the condition. In addition to on-site medical care and low caregiver-to-resident ratios, memory care facility residents have rich and vibrant social lives. Daily activities, supervised excursions, and creative outlets are a foundation upon which these centers were developed, and the positive benefits of those outlets are evidenced.
5. Your instincts are telling you something
Inevitably, your gut instincts never lie. If you deeply suspect it’s time to move a loved one into memory care, it’s undoubtedly true.
