Late Alzheimer’s Stage: Your Options of Care (2)

Nursing homes are required when the patient needs 24 hour direction or special care. Specially licensed and able to manage the proper medications as needed, some nursing homes even have specialized programs for patients suffering from dementia. Moreover, nursing homes have qualified professionals on staff and have to submit to regular inspections, to assure patients are receiving appropriate care.

Many people feel in the wrong about leaving their loved ones in a nursing home and choose to keep the patient with them, where they are more familiar with their surroundings and cared for by those that love them. True, these are very good reasons, but again, one must all the time look at the big picture. Previous to you take such a risk, consider everything over clearly; are you really able to stay with your loved one all over the duration of this disease if it goes on for another 20 years? Are you ready to give up your job? What about your life out, dancing in the clubs, or taking trips? Can you put your life on hold for all that time?

If you feel you are capable of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient, another form of help is available in hospice care. Hospice care is an option for any fatally ill patient, during their last 6 months of life or, as in the case of those suffering dementia, during the last stage of Alzheimer‘s disease. Experienced with medical equipment, meds, and often just talking and helping to lessen stress, hospice care workers often help to tend for the ill person, handling the things they cannot do at home, such as bathing, administering certain medications, etc.

Whether you decide to have your loved one’s care provided in a nursing home or in your own home is a choice you and they have to make, hopefully together. Consider all avenues; cost, needs, programs, reliability and respectability. Once you’ve weighed your alternatives and considered all routes, when it comes down to the final decision, follow your heart.