Making Health Decisions For A Parent With Alzheimer’s

One of the most difficult parts of taking care of a senior parent with Alzheimer’s is having to make decisions about their care and their lifestyle. It can be very tough to make decisions for your senior parent with Alzheimer’s when they are not able to communicate their feelings and thoughts on things. Alzheimer’s care services are essential for seniors with Alzheimer’s.

If your senior parent has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and you’re worried about having to make decisions for them as the disease progresses there are some things you should know.

Get Alzheimer’s Care

You should start Alzheimer’s care soon after your senior parent is diagnosed. By building up a strong relationship with a care provider your senior loved one will have a stronger connection to that caregiver. When their cognitive decline starts that strong connection could be helpful. And a trained Alzheimer’s care provider can notice small details about your senior parent’s condition that you won’t notice. Those small things can be very important. Get Alzheimer’s care for your senior parent.

Talk To Them About Their Wishes Now

After your senior parent is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s everyone is going through a lot of emotions, especially your parent. Start a conversation with them about their wishes for their lifestyle and activities, medical care, and other things. Having these conversations while they are still at the best level of cognition is important. Once that diagnosis has been made the clock is ticking, so it’s better to start talking sooner rather than later.

Make Videos Of Them Talking About Important Issues

One of the best things that you can do is to video the conversations that you have with your senior parent. Then you will have the videos to refer to when you are trying to make decisions according to their wishes later on. It is very difficult to talk about things like end of life plans, finances, health matters, and lifestyle issues with a parent, especially a sick parent. But getting video of them telling you what they want in their own words will be very helpful when it become necessary for you to make those tough decisions. And it will be comforting to you later on to know that you did everything according to what they wanted.

Keep The Conversation Going

Alzheimer’s Care Micanopy FL – Making Health Decisions For A Parent With Alzheimer’s

Talking about tough issues right after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is difficult for you, your senior parent, and your siblings too. But those first conversations are just a starting point. As your senior parent gets older and the disease progresses their wishes could change. Keep the conversations going about hard topics. Every so often check in with them and ask if they feel the same way about some of the more difficult topics. They may change their mind about some things or want to make tweaks to other decisions that they have made. Keep the dialog open and make sure that you are respecting their agency to make decisions for their life while they can.

If you are considering Alzheimer’s Care Services in Micanopy FL, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Touching Hearts Home Care. Call today: 352-225-3727.