You’ve tried to avoid it, but finally the inevitable has happened. You’ve married, changed jobs, or found a house with a one floor layout. Now, you have to move the person with Alzheimer’s that you are caring for to a new home. How do you move with an Alzheimer’s patient?
Well, as you know, the best thing is to stay put. Failing that, you need to try to avoid changing routines as much as possible. If you aren’t moving far, try moving the rest of the house and getting everything organized before moving the patient’s room. Then, have the patient sit in a familiar chair. Put on a favorite show or familiar tune to mask some of the noise and confusion. Then, have the patient’s room moved and reassembled. Be sure to arrange it look as much like the old room as possible.
If you are traveling a long way, you may not be able to set things up this way. For a long distance move, have the movers pack the Alzheimer’s patient’s room last, so that you can pull it out first when the van arrives at its destination. Don’t pack the room while the patient is sitting in it. Move him or her to a quiet, familiar area. If the whole house is in an uproar, go for a drive while you pack the room or take a walk in the back yard.
Don’t be surprised if your loved one is aggitated and upset during and after the move. Even if everything looks like it is the same, it isn’t and he or she will sense that.
Science Daily has published an article linking glaucoma and Alzheimer’s:
UK scientists have shown for the first time that key proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease are also implicated in glaucoma, the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.
One good thing about this? Drugs that have been developed to treat Alzheimer’s are also proving to work on glaucoma.
I was reading an article recently on multitasking and realized that it may be something good for most of us, but not for Alzheimer’s patients. It is hard enough to get dressed or eat breakfast without thinking about the next thing on the agenda, or, even worse, trying to get dressed and eat breakfast at the same time. Sometimes, it is difficult to remember that Mom or Dad can’t handle deciding on a trip to the store or the park while she or he is just sitting there eating. It can be really frustrating to realize that even simple multitasking can be too much, but what can you do if a brain simply can’t handle all that mental juggling we take for granted in our own lives?
Multipurpose Rooms
Thinking about multitasking made me think about something else: our tendency to have rooms with many functions. To minimize confusion, each area in the house should have a specific job. For example, the kitchen should be for preparing and eating food, not for creating crafts or wrapping gifts. Imagine wondering into the kitchen and eating that stuff on the plate, only to taste…fun foam and glue.
Of course, if the Alzheimer’s patient has been crafting at the kitchen table for years, you don’t want to change established routines. It is just important to avoid making new and confusing changes. Laundry rooms turning into potting areas, sun rooms becoming the dogs’ bedroom, etc. are all things we take for granted as we expand our interests and repurpose rooms. However, for an Alzheimer’s patient, they can just be another confusing thing in a frustrating world.
