When your parent is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, you may not know what to think or do to support them and help care for them as they deal with their diagnosis and their condition. This can have a lot to do with the emotions you are feeling about their diagnosis, your unfamiliarity with Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and a myriad of other issues. However, in order to be the best possible caregiver and support system for your parent with Alzheimer's, you will need to learn how you can care for and help them. Get to know some of the things you can do and areas you should focus on.

Make Safety Your Top Priority

First and foremost, when you find out your parent has Alzheimer's, your top care priority should be about their safety. Because Alzheimer's is progressive and will make your parent increasingly confused, disoriented, and forgetful, this will affect how they act at home and in public. 

The biggest safety concern will be when your parent is at home, especially if they live alone. People with Alzheimer's may begin cooking or believe that they are cooking and turn the oven on and forget about it. They can leave water running, place metal in the microwave, or injure themselves in a variety of ways.

As such, you will need to do everything in your power to ensure that your parent is safe in their home. This may mean you will need to hire help such as a home caregiver to supervise your parent when you or other family members cannot. You may also want to remove large kitchen knives, and other objects that could be dangerous from their home. If possible, you can lock doors to the kitchen or other problematic rooms at night to further protect your parent.

Consider What You Will Do When Their Alzheimer's Progresses

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive condition. This means that it will worsen over time. Eventually, it will likely no longer be safe for your loved one to remain in their own home, even with supervision.

In order to minimize stress and chaos for both you and your parent when that time comes, you will want to make plans ahead of time for what you are going to do. Including your parent in this decision making process will help as well. While your parent is still lucid enough, have them come with you to tour assisted living facilities.

In assisted living, your parent will be able to get the assistance they need for dealing with their Alzheimer's and memory loss progression, but can stay as independent as possible at the same time. Assisted living will ensure that your parent is safe, takes their medications, and maintains their hygiene. The social and recreational activities provided in assisted living can also help to slow the progress of the disease and improve quality of life.

When selecting an assisted living home for your parent with Alzheimer's, try to choose one that has a specific memory care program. In these assisted living facilities, they are equipped to deal with the full progression of dementia and Alzheimer's. This means your parent may move around within the care facility based on the stage of their Alzheimer's but they will not have to leave the facility entirely because of that progression.

Now that you have a few ideas of what to do and expect when caring for your parent with Alzheimer's, you can get started doing what you need to do to ensure your parent is safe and well taken care of.

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