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What to Expect When Your Elderly Loved One Has a Dementia Diagnosis

If your elderly loved one has a dementia diagnosis, they are going to experience memory problems and other cognitive impairments. This type of disease may seem mild at first. However, over time, when the disease progresses, the symptoms will get worse. With this being said, knowing what you can expect for your elderly loved one with this disease, can help you to manage things a bit easier.

Lapses in Memory

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One of the main things that happen with dementia is lapses in memory. At first, your elderly loved one may seem normal. Everything might be fine, except that they are experiencing a loss of memory. They might only forget where their keys are at the beginning of this disease. Then, your loved one might lose objects that are important to them. As the memory lapses continue, your elderly loved one might need written to-do lists or even a list of where important things are located.

Personality Changes

You or a home care services provider might notice personality changes in your elderly loved one. Dementia can cause the person with the disease to become overly anxious, irritable, or depressed. You might find that your loved one also becomes agitated, paranoid, or aggressive. These personality changes might happen slowly or suddenly. It depends on the nature of your elderly loved one’s disease.

Not Being Able to Make Sound Decisions

Another symptom of dementia is not being able to make sound decisions. You might notice that your elderly loved one doesn’t make proper judgments. For instance, when a scammer calls them pretending to be the IRS, your elderly loved one might give them their bank account information without a second thought. When these things start happening, your elderly loved one might need you or home care services providers around more to ensure they aren’t making rash or poor decisions.

More Trouble with Doing Daily Tasks

As dementia progresses, your elderly loved one will have more trouble doing daily tasks. At first, they may only need help with a few things. However, later in the disease, your elderly loved one might need help with just about everything. This doesn’t mean they can’t do anything on their own. It just means that you or a home care services provider may need to offer assistance with most tasks.

If your elderly loved one does have a dementia diagnosis, now that you know more about what things to expect, you can be more prepared. This doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to process that your loved one has the disease. It just makes it a bit easier to manage what is going on.

Source: https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/special-issues/seniors/dealing-dementia