Dementia Care Tips for Maintaining Senior Health During the COVID-19 Crisis

Providing help for an aging parent with Alzheimer's disease is complex under the best of scenarios; mix in a global pandemic, one that calls for social distancing, masks, and meticulous sterilization of both ourselves and our home, and the challenge may seem insurmountable.

All Care In-Home Care Solutions’ dementia care team offers the following tips to help minimize anxiety and aggravation for seniors with Alzheimer's disease, while improving both caregiver and senior health and wellbeing:

• Make self-care a main priority. Now more than ever before, it’s important to assess your own personal level of stress, and make a plan to ensure you are healthy – both physically and emotionally. You can only supply the best care assistance for a senior loved one if your own needs are met. This may mean limiting time spent monitoring the news as well as on social media, maintaining connections with friends and family, and making time for relaxing, enjoyable hobbies.
• Focus on hygiene. Proper handwashing techniques are critical for everybody, but may be difficult for individuals with Alzheimer's to uphold. Depending on the person's stage of the disease, it may be beneficial to wash your hands alongside one another, showing the steps to your loved one; or, position signs near the sink in the bathroom and kitchen with a message to wash for 20 seconds. And recognize that repetition, a common behavior in dementia, can perhaps work in your favor in this case.
• Select your words carefully. When speaking to a parent with dementia about changes related to COVID-19, it’s crucial to keep it straightforward, using a calm and reassuring tone. Beth Kallmyer, Vice President of Care and Support at the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests statements such as, “We have to stay inside because that’s most safe for us, but we’ll do it together. I’ll be with you and we’ll be okay.”
• Make certain you have a backup plan. If you happen to be diagnosed with COVID-19 yourself, or any other health condition that might prevent you from safely providing care assistance for a senior loved one with dementia, it’s vital to have a plan in place for who could take over to fulfill your care duties. A knowledgeable home care agency, like All Care In-Home Care Solutions, is the ideal choice, with aides who are experienced in specialized dementia care.

Let All Care In-Home Care Solutions, the top providers of elder care in Ashland and the surrounding area, help. Our highly trained dementia caregivers are fully trained and experienced in both adhering to proper protocol associated with minimizing the danger for contracting coronavirus, as well as in the specialized type of care that’s most effective for people with dementia. Contact us at (541) 857-9195 for a consultation.