Ask about . . . Alzheimer's / Dementia Care
More than 50 percent of people over the age of 85 experience some degree of dementia, primarily Alzheimer's Disease. Many people with early-stage and mid-stage Alzheimer's Disease continue to live successfully in their own homes or apartments, or in senior housing.
Living in your own home or apartment:
A significant number of in-home care services, community-based programs, home repair and modification programs, and financial assistance are available to older people who are living in their own homes and apartments. When older people incur aging-related impairments or health-related issues— including memory loss and cognitive impairment— such programs and assistance can help them to remain living where they are and to successfully and safely age in place. For help in identifying and accessing services, programs, and care available in your area, contact your local Office for the Aging.
Increasingly, age-integrated apartment buildings that have evolved into Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) will form a partnership with a community services agency to coordinate and provide a program of meals, services, care, and supervision for the elderly tenants in the development, including those with early or mid-stage dementia. The development's manager will be able to tell you whether a NORCs Services Program is available in the apartment building.
Active adult communities and senior housing that includes no amenities or services:
Many housing developments that are meant only for seniors do not include services, care, or assistance programs. For a person with memory loss, safe and successful aging-in-place often depends upon whether that person's family stays involved in helping with daily living tasks and transportation and with making sure that the person continues to eat enough nutritious food, socializes with others, does not wander away, and stays in touch with their family physician. Family members can contact the local Office for the Aging for assistance in identifying and accessing services and care for an aging parent with memory loss. Very often, senior housing residents with Alzheimer's, or their families, will purchase assistance, services, and care from various community service agencies.
Supportive Senior Housing:
Many senior housing developments also include supportive programs such as meals, assistance with housekeeping, transportation, safety features, and social activities. This type of housing provides a living environment that is more accommodating for people with dementia because of the easy availability of daily living services and help, and because of the physical presence of housing staff. Some supportive housing does not include on-duty staff during the evening and night hours. Some people with dementia will be afraid to stay alone at night, or they will be awake and want interaction with others. In these cases, housing with no night time staff is not appropriate.
Dementia wing, floor, or program:
Some housing developments make a special effort to allow residents with memory loss to remain living successfully in the development and to continue interacting with residents who do not suffer from memory loss—thereby providing a more normalized environment for residents with dementia. For example, interior common spaces and individual apartment units are designed to help confused residents find their way around easily and to use appliances safely. The exterior of the building is designed to allow residents to go outside by themselves without getting lost. Activities, services, and meal programs are specially designed, and staff are trained to interact appropriately with residents with dementia. A development may provide these programs and staff for residents who continue to live in their current apartments, or they may include a wing or floor specifically to relocate residents who develop dementia as well as for newly entering residents with dementia.
Dementia Care Facilities:
In recent years, some housing developments have been designed and built that are meant ONLY for residents with Alzheimer's Disease or other forms of dementia—all residents suffer from memory loss. They are licensed and regulated by the New York State Health Department as an Enriched Housing Facility, Adult Home, or a New York State Assisted Living Program.
Both licensed and non-licensed senior housing developments will have their own policies about accepting new residents who have memory loss and about discharging residents who develop memory loss after they have been living in the development.
You must ask for details about acceptance and discharge policies for people with memory loss. For example, some developments will NOT accept people who are experiencing memory loss and will ask residents to leave if they develop dementia. Others will not accept new residents with dementia but will allow residents to stay if they develop memory loss after living in the development. Others will accept and keep people with memory loss, but only under certain conditions—for example, early-stage is acceptable but late-stage is not, or uncontrolled wandering or incontinence is not acceptable, or certain inappropriate or destructive behaviors are not acceptable, or a resident must have the ability to exit a building without help during an emergency, or certain levels of care or supervision are more than can be provided by the development.
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