Summer vacation is a time to be enjoyed with family and friends, but for the 15 million people caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, however, vacations and holidays can be conflicted, stressful and difficult. Many people are already balancing the responsibility of caregiving with everyday life and now have to change their routine significantly and worry about traveling, organizing and changing environments. The added pressure of a vacation or holiday can be very overwhelming. Here a few coping strategies and guidelines for enjoying and surviving one’s summer vacation and other holidays throughout the year. Even though summer vacation may be a…
One of the overlooked elements in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is that, beyond the individual mandate (and the politics), the act has a number of innovative ideas, and pilot programs easing the lives of people with serious health problems i.e. Alzheimer's Disease. A pilot program for 10,000 people called the Independence At Home program. This is a technique first developed by the Veterans Administration — by which a patient with a chronic disease, like Alzheimer's Disease, is treated in his or her own home by a team of doctors, nurse practitioners, geriatric pharmacists, and any other health professional…
Americans are living longer, so debilitating diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are rising, making long-term care vital. Long-term care insurance offered those facing retirement a new option to offset the cost of assistance that many require later in life. From daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning to the all-encompassing care provided in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities, long-term care insurance covers many of the expenses that health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid generally don’t. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about 60 percent of individuals over age 65 will require at least some type of long-term…
Caring for an elderly loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s is a difficult thing, often both for the caregiver and the patient. This is especially true when it comes to effective communication. Enter “art therapy.” According to a recent article in The New York Times (The New Old Age Blog) titled Art Therapy For Alzheimer's Patients, art helps to comfort and often even invigorate a patient by giving them “something” with which to associate that does not require verbal interaction. As a result, various museums have begun programs with care professionals to provide guided tours for patients. These tours through…
Millions of people are affected by dementia, and unfortunately many of them do not have all their estate planning affairs in order before the symptoms start. If you or a loved one has dementia, it may not be too late to sign a will or other documents, but certain criteria must be met to ensure that the signer is mentally competent. In order for a will to be valid, the person signing must have "testamentary capacity," which means he or she must understand the implications of what is being signed. Simply because you have a form of mental illness or…
More than five million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer's disease. It takes an average of 30 months from the time family members notice the first symptoms of dementia until the person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. There are several reasons for this, but one of the principal ones is that family members hesitate to take their loved one to a doctor, fearing that the diagnosis will in fact turn out to be Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is, above all, an insidious illness. It begins with very mild symptoms — things we all do from time to time, such as forgetting to turn…
There is no easy way for a family to deal with a senior grappling with a cognitive mental disease like dementia or Alzheimer's. Like any health problems faced by loved ones, a family's initial reaction is to try to get the senior the help they need. However, at our Elder Law firm we understand that cognitive conditions are tricky, because the injury is not physical and often the senior may not be fully aware that they are even suffering from the problem at all. One elder law advocate recently discussed this challenge in response to a reader question explaining her…
Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects everybody it touches—husbands, wives, children and grandchildren—they all bear witness to their loved one’s slow demise. Sadly, emotional stress is not the only stress that accompanies Alzheimer’s disease; those loved ones serving as caretakers may carry a huge amount of financial stress as well. The cost of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient can run anywhere from $64 a day to over a $100,000 a year, and because Alzheimer’s disease can be such a long-lasting disease (a person can suffer from Alzheimer’s for up to 20 years) the costs of care can end up being…
The Alzheimer’s Association Greater Maryland Chapter’s Awareness Video Take the first step to a world without Alzheimer’s Sign up for the Alzheimer’s Walk to end Alzheimer’s Disease.
For millions of Americans, the heartbreak of watching a loved one struggle with Alzheimer's disease is a pain they know all too well. Alzheimer's disease burdens an increasing number of our Nation's elders and their families, and it is essential that we confront the challenge it poses to our public health. — President Barack Obama National Alzheimer’s Project Act On January 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), requiring the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish the National Alzheimer’s Project to: Create and maintain an integrated…
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