Caregiver Tips for Special Family Events Throughout the Year

With just a few weeks left to the 2013 holiday season, there may be a few more special occasions for families who have a loved one living with dementia to gather together. We’ve discovered a list of tips from the Alzheimer’s Association to make these occasions successful and happy, but since they are as relevant to any family celebration at any point in the year as they are to traditional year-end events, we felt it would be worthwhile to share with readers.

1. Adjust your expectations of yourself, the caregiver. Only agree to take on what you can reasonably manage, and ask for help. Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries often come with traditions and expectations from family members, but try to ask for people to be flexible. Perhaps you can ask someone else to host the holiday gathering this year.
2. Let family and friends know what to expect. If they haven’t seen the person with dementia in a few months or a year, make sure they know.
3. If a family gathering is large, assign a friend or relative (or two) to be a “buddy” to the person with dementia. The buddies can take turns guiding the person with dementia through what is expected at the gathering and making sure the person with dementia’s needs are being met.
4. Involve the person with the diagnosis in tasks that they can succeed in. Maybe he or she can no longer prepare the entire meal, but perhaps the person can rinse the vegetables, set the table or clean silverware and still feel included in the preparation.
5. Try to schedule only one activity or outing a day. Allow the person to rest either before or after the event. If you have an especially busy day, plan for the next day to be one of rest and relaxation for both the person with dementia and you.
6. Take time for yourself. If you have a holiday tradition that is important to you, such as attending a musical performance with your grandchildren, arrange for home care so you can continue to enjoy the things you love.

Visit the Alzheimer Association website for a fuller list of holiday season tips as well as tips for winter and spring enjoyment.

Your Second Caregiver Responsibility: Take Care of Yourself!

As director of memory care programs at Charles E. Smith Life Communities, I assist in developing stimulating programming for residents living with memory care issues. Recently, I was chatting with the family member of one of these residents and suddenly refocused the conversation to the gentleman’s own wellbeing by asking, “So what are you doing for yourself today?”

He scratched his head and had difficulty coming up with a quick answer. Why? Well, he had never considered himself in the equation of care. Finally he replied that he was not coming back that evening and in fact had just decided to decrease his visits to mornings only.

We started to discuss his typical day. Every morning and afternoon he attends synagogue services. He then tries to arrive at our residence around 9 a.m. to be with his wife; he stays to have lunch with her and finally leaves around 1 p.m. Back at his home, he attends to personal affairs. That’s it. As far as doing anything for himself that might be fun, interesting, stimulating, or nourishing to body and soul—all in an effort to relieve stress and prevent caregiver burnout, he has nothing on the schedule.

If this describes your life as a caregiver, there’s abundant practical advice out there to help you help yourself. To start the ball rolling, go to the Mayo Clinic website to read “Caregiver stress: Tips for taking care of yourself.” http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caregiver-stress/MY01231.

Tips for Caregivers

In this day and age, people turn to the Internet to research anything which interests or concerns them, from politics to history… to, yes, medical information. So, on that note, I want to draw your attention to an especially helpful website devoted to Alzheimer’s disease – presented by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers and titled “Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center.”

As I was exploring the different links, I checked out the “News & Highlights” section – which has so much great info – and learned that tip sheets for Alzheimer’s caregivers are now available for viewing and downloading onto mobile devices.

Users of tablets, smartphones, and e-readers with an e-book app can now view and download select tip sheets for their mobile devices from the ADEAR website at http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/topics/caregiving. Go to “Caregiving Tip Sheets and Resource Lists” to see the topics and available formats.

Read the article in full at http://1.usa.gov/1cy4gzq. I guarantee you’ll pick up some useful ideas.