Providing Care for Seniors with Dementia? Here’s Why You Should Never Go It Alone.

Although scores of seniors are dealing with the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease, a far greater number of family members are trying to cope with providing care for seniors with dementia. Surprisingly, nearly 75% of family caretakers are managing their senior loved ones’ dementia care needs on their own, with only 26% seeking professional care services.

Of course, families want to do all they can to fulfill their loved one’s needs, but dementia caregiving can result in an incredibly high level of both mental and physical stress. This takes a toll on the caregivers’ own health and wellbeing over time, especially once the disease progresses. And lots of family members believe there’s an all-or-nothing strategy: either oversee their loved one’s needs in the home, or confront moving him or her into residential care.

Home Sweet Home In-Home Care, the experts in dementia care in Battle Creek, MI and surrounding Michigan communities, offers an alternative that is beneficial to seniors with dementia along with their family caregivers: the addition of an expert in-home dementia caregiver to provide as much or as little respite care as needed. Here is why we believe dementia care in the home is the best choice:

• Highly trained care. Because our care providers are both skilled and knowledgeable in the many detailed components of providing care for dementia, they are in a position to proactively address and more successfully manage even the most difficult of behaviors, including wandering, aggression, sundowning, and many more.
• Enhanced safety. The risk of accidents is increased for everyone with dementia. Even something that appears as straightforward as helping your senior loved one into the shower or onto the toilet can add a dangerous fall risk. Professional care providers know exactly how to watch for and prevent falls, keeping both you and your loved one safe from injury.
• Sustainable aging in place. Frequently, family caretakers become so stressed out trying to meet each one of a senior loved one’s needs in conjunction with their own that a relocation to a residential dementia care facility seems to be unavoidable. However, working with an expert dementia caregiver opens up the possibility of long-term, effective care at home.
• Ease of mind. Understanding your senior loved one is in capable hands enables you to take a breath, relax, and step away from the pressures of caregiving for the much-needed breaks that alleviate stress and the prospect of caregiver burnout and depression.

It’s best to explore in-home dementia care solutions as early in the disease as possible, to allow for a far more seamless transition and also to be sure that your loved one has the most effective care from the very beginning. Contact Home Sweet Home, the experts providers of dementia care in Battle Creek, MI and the surrounding communities, to ask about a consultation in the comfort of home, where we can create a highly individualized plan of care that will increase the quality of life for the senior you love today, and also as needs change in the future. To learn more about all of the other areas we serve throughout southwest Michigan, please visit our Service Area page.