Tag: Dementia

Alzheimer’s Awareness and Assisted Living Centers

As assisted living centers across the country reach out to areas during World Alzheimer’s disease Awareness Month, care facilities in The Woodlands have one big concept for group members: They are here to help. Autumn Leaves in of The Woodlands Memory Care, in particular, is featuring its childcare and respite care programs, which offer daily stays at its facility from Monday through Friday. The day-stay program is offered to Woodlands-area citizens absolutely free on Fridays, Executive Director Luis Carillo said.

“We are dedicated to individuals that are working with harmful dementia-related diseases day in and day out,” Carillo said. “We focus not only on care-giving for specific types of dementia, but also with actions that help with socializing, exercises and religious actions.” By providing programs like day stays, care providers and close relatives are given a chance to rest and recover. They also allow future residents to ease into the conversion process of moving completely into assisted living centers, Carillo said.

Rina Hanel knows all too well the complications that close relatives and partners face when working with the severe facts of dementia. Her spouse Greg has been at Autumn Leaves in for the past year. “The greatest thing you have to do is agree to it,” Hanel said. “It can start with simple things like misunderstandings, failing to remember things, losing track of things and just advances from there. You really have to agree to what exactly is occurring to the person you love as there are so many people out there in denial.” Hanel said her spouse has adjusted well to Autumn Leaves and has been passionately referred to as The Hat Man because of his many preferred caps. Due to his sickness, he hardly ever talks but usually spends his time cheerful and silently monitoring his environment. Moving him to the service was a huge step, as the two have been wedded for more than 54 years. However, Hanel highlighted that she has no remorse. “I think the important thing is that he may not know me all the time,” Hanel said. “But I know him.”

Hospice Care Costs on Dementia

The RAND Corporation conducted a new study that set off a few red flames about the increasing cost of dementia within the U.S. healthcare system. According to RAND, dementia is one of the nation’s most expensive health conditions, charging the U.S. between $157 billion dollars and $215 billion dollars a year in health care and other expenses.

Compared to other common costly illnesses, the immediate healthcare expenses of treating dementia, approximated at $109 billion dollars in 2010, are in line with cardiovascular disease ($102 billion) and considerably greater than cancer ($72 billion). Beyond immediate healthcare expenses, it is approximated that an additional $48 to $106 billion dollars is spent on the unofficial care for dementia, which primarily includes lost wages and care provided by close relatives at home. The estimated growth is also eye opening, both the expenses and the number of individuals with dementia will more than double within 30 years, a rate that overrules many other serious illnesses. These incredible researches clearly strengthen the need for the U.S. to find better solutions for those suffering from dementia.

Medical health insurance rules require a doctor to approve that an individual coming into a hospital is likely to die within six months or less. Physicians are much more likely to do so when the disease is cancer or heart failure. As a result, too many sufferers are declined access to hospice care, which provides modern care (i.e. comfort care) for the dying and support for their family members. Without hospice care, those being affected by dementia may be exposed to several hospitalizations, obtrusive treatments and poor pain /symptom management.

Today, dementia sufferers are blatantly under served as less than 10% of people dying of dementia receive hospice care and often times are registered too late, within a few weeks of death. Relatively, more than 40% of People in America who die each year are in hospice care. The decision to put a loved one into hospice is without doubt one of life’s most difficult choices. But, better prognoses and education about the benefits of hospice may reduce struggling and needless medical costs.