You visit your loved one and notice they've forgotten where their room is or seem more agitated than usual. Could this be a sign it's time for memory care?
Noticing these patterns is the first step to recognizing a potential need for specialized care. Knowing when to move from assisted living to memory care can help you keep your loved one comfortable, safe, and engaged in their life and can safeguard their independence for longer.
Spotting the signs is more difficult without an Alzheimer's or dementia diagnosis, which is why we've got a helpful list of signs to look for. Keep reading to learn the signs for a memory care move.
Some people think that assisted living communities are sufficient to help people with dementia symptoms. However, assisted living is an environment for adults who need help with daily tasks like:
Assisted living communities are not for people who require more comprehensive or round-the-clock care, like people who have Alzheimer's or dementia.
Caretakers can monitor for senior cognitive decline in assisted living communities. This can help notice the early warning signs, affording their family enough time to plan for a move to memory care.
A memory care home is a specialized living community designed for individuals with:
Memory care provides a secure environment with trained staff who offer 24/7 support, engaging activities, and tailored therapies to enhance cognitive function and improve quality of life. These homes prioritize safety and structure while fostering a sense of community and familiarity for residents.
The core symptoms of progressing dementia or Alzheimer's disease are:
Usually, only people who spend a lot of time with the person experiencing these symptoms would be around to catch them early. For some people, symptoms only start appearing at particular times of the day (so-called "sundowning" is an example).
However, the confluence of these symptoms does manifest in a few typical behaviors. Spotting these behaviors can help signal the need for a transition to memory care.
The above symptoms can make even the simplest tasks and activities, like spending time with friends or brushing one's teeth, overwhelming and frustrating. People tend to start forgetting to complete these tasks, losing the energy needed to complete them, or becoming very irritated.
In severe cases, the person might also try to defend their version of events, becoming hostile. The need for a memory care move can, therefore, be pre-empted by a sudden uptick in a loved one's:
Those same core Alzheimer's and dementia symptoms can turn navigation into a puzzling venture. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that around 60% of people with a diagnosis experience wandering and confusion about their surroundings. Common signs that this is starting to happen include:
These behaviors can be distressing for the person going through them and for their families, even in their earliest forms. They also pose a significant risk to the person's safety. Some examples of steps memory care homes take to reduce the risks are:
People with progressing memory and cognitive problems can sometimes appear to lose interest in things they enjoy doing suddenly. The core symptoms they experience can lead to:
This doesn't even have to affect larger activities. Even in the early stages, people can lose interest in:
This isn't the same as the occasional bout of boredom. Older adults can lose interest in an activity for a variety of reasons.
The key difference is the underlying reason why they've lost interest. Someone who has become bored knows they've done something too many times and remembers what to expect.
However, when a person is reclining from a hobby because it has suddenly become very frustrating, that could signal the need for memory care.
Friends and family call to our deepest emotions and core memories, which makes forgetting dates with these loved ones or losing track of their history all the more concerning. Forgetting that a loved one is visiting, the context of their visit, or who they are are signs that the person's condition has progressed quite far.
If you notice these symptoms, it's imperative to start thinking about a move to memory care. Because it's such an advanced symptom, this type of forgetfulness often comes after most other behaviors on this list.
Knowing when to move from assisted living to memory care requires patient observation and understanding of the person experiencing the symptoms. At Prairie Hills Tipton, we provide excellent assisted living and memory care communities for our residents. This makes our staff uniquely positioned to notice the signs often leading to senior care transitions.
Our goal is to have our residents benefit from compassionate care and to give them the best possible quality of life. Contact us today to find staff and a community in Tipton, IA, that can handle residents' dementia care needs with skill and grace.