Memory Care Assisted Living

Dementia Care in Assisted Living Facilities: Five Things You Need to Know

More than 50 million people around the world are suffering from dementia and 10 million new cases are diagnosed each year. The debilitating condition that causes deterioration in thinking, memory, and behavior affects mostly the elderly. This is why it’s very important to send them to memory care assisted living where they can get the assistance they need for doing activities of daily living and ensure that they are safe and in good care all the time. But what exactly does dementia care in assisted living facilities mean?

 

 

Memory Care Assisted Living

Currently, there are more than 30,000 assisted living facilities operating in the United States, a lot of which specialize in memory care assisted living to care for patients suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

 

These facilities offer round-the-clock supervised care to ensure that residents are in a safe environment where they cannot wander out of the building and put themselves in potential danger.

 

 

Environment

Memory care assisted living facilities to give residents the opportunity to express themselves in a healthier way to satisfy their needs. Since these patients tend to revert back to their younger years, these facilities provide them with the environment to fill up a need to prevent them from being agitated.

 

For instance, if an elderly man wants to feel that he’s still working in an office, the facility will provide him with a desk where he can go through the motions that he’s used to.

 

 

Independence

These specialized assisted living facilities understand the need for patients to feel that they are free even when they’re indoors. Some assisted living facilities even try to recreate the resident’s home just to make him feel more safe and secure.

 

Since separation anxiety is one of the biggest challenges for elderly people who are moving to memory care assisted living facilities, it’s very important to make them feel as comfortable and familiar with their surroundings as possible.

 

 

The Best Staff

If you’re looking for the right assisted living facility for a loved one, you have to look for three important things: proper staff training, and organized patient-centered program, and engaging activities for patients with dementia.

 

The Alzheimer’s Association released a Dementia Care Practice Recommendations document in 2018 to ensure that all memory care assisted living facilities to follow the best practices for residents with dementia.

 

It’s also very important for facilities to be accessible to a healthcare team that can help address the health conditions of residents.

 

 

The Right Approach

One of the most important components of any good assisted living facility for dementia patients is in its approach to care. A facility should make the effort to understand each patient’s condition carefully because residents have different needs even if they are all living with dementia.

 

This will help the team create a personalized care plan to ensure that the patient is given the best care possible.

 

With the elderly population growing more than ever in the coming years, it’s very important for memory care assisted living facilities to make sure that they follow the best practices in caring for patients living with dementia.

 


Fallbrook Assisted Living is proud to offer its services to Fremont, NE, and surrounding areas and cities: Arlington, Cedar Bluffs, Ames Nickerson, Fontanelle, Arlington, Leshara, Colon, and Hooper

Memory Assisted Living

Is There Hope for Future Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most devastating health conditions in the world, yet there is still no known cure for it. Every 65 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease and there are 5.8 million Americans living with the condition today, a number that is projected to reach up to 14 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease is also the 6th leading cause of death in the country where 1 in 3 seniors die from the condition. It kills more than prostate and breast cancer combined. And with the growing elderly population, the need for facilities for Alzheimer’s has never been more important. But with all these alarming numbers, is there still hope for future Alzheimer’s drugs for this debilitating condition?

 

 

The Status of Alzheimer’s Drugs Today

 

Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved five drugs for Alzheimer’s disease that are being used in facilities for Alzheimer’s.

 

These drugs treat the symptoms of the disease including memory and thinking problems. Unfortunately, these medications do not slow the progression of the disease nor treat its underlying cause.

 

 

The Ongoing Development of Alzheimer’s Drugs

 

Most drugs that are being developed today are targeted towards the disease process itself. Researchers aim to disrupt one or more of the brain changes that are related to Alzheimer’s disease, which could potentially slow or stop its progression.

 

A combination of drugs will hopefully target different areas of the brain to stop the disease from destroying the brain further and eventually, cure the disease in the future. This strategy is similar to the current treatments for AIDS and cancer.

 

 

The Future of Alzheimer’s Drugs

 

Current research studies are focusing on some of the most promising next-generation drugs that include:

 

 

Posiphen

 

The formation of plaque is one of the biggest brain abnormalities in Alzheimer’s disease, and its chief component is beta-amyloid.

 

Several studies have looked into how this protein is formed and why it’s present in abnormally high levels in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

This has paved the way for the development of drugs that are targeted towards the production of beta-amyloid including Posiphen that may help delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

 

 

AADvac1

 

Tau protein has been identified as one of the chief components of tangles, another hallmark in Alzheimer’s disease. AADvac1 is a vaccine created to help stimulate the body’s immune system to attack the abnormal form of tau protein. If this drug is successful, it could stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

 

 

JNJ-54861911

 

Another study that’s expected to be completed in 2024 is the development of the drug JNJ-54861911, which will prevent the beta-secretase enzyme from making beta-amyloid, which plays a vital role in one of the brain abnormalities found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Once the drug is available in the market, it will be administered in the form of a pill.

 

There is definitely a lot of hope for the future of drugs that may help cure Alzheimer’s disease.

 


Fallbrook Assisted Living is proud to offer its services to Fremont, NE, and surrounding areas and cities: Arlington, Cedar Bluffs, Ames Nickerson, Fontanelle, Arlington, Leshara, Colon, and Hooper