Home Health Care for Dementia Patients

When people talk of Alzheimer’s, they usually associate it with senility, irritability, and impaired intelligence. The condition has become quite prevalent, with as many as 5.2 million cases in America diagnosed so far in 2014. However, Alzheimer’s is just one type of dementia, and Alzheimer cases make up only 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases.

Dementia describes a condition that hampers a person’s intellectual functions, resulting in a loss of memory, language, speaking skills, and cognition. It is caused by a variety of factors, ranging from genetics, physical trauma, or existing mental problems, to seemingly-unrelated diseases like HIV.  Aside from Alzheimer’s, dementia is also present in people with Huntington’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: ailments that result in personality changes rather than decreased intelligence.

Because dementia comes in many forms, its treatment can be quite challenging for caregivers. Reliable providers of professional home health care understand this difficulty, and are aware that dementia is, in many cases, a degenerative and irreversible disease.

In instances like these, comfort keepers lend a hand by being supportive companions to their patients in day-to-day activities, and ensuring the patients get their medications on time. Therapies like memory books, aromatherapy, and physical activities may also help patients cope with their condition, but these have to be carried out under the supervision of reliable health experts.