Customized approach to Dementia Care in Pittsburgh PA
Holistic Aging is frequently called upon to assist families who are trying to navigate the management of a person with Dementia in and around Pittsburgh PA.
Is it? Alzheimer’s Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, Parkinson’s Dementia, Cerebrovascular Dementia, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Wernicke’s disease, or mixed dementia?
Most Frequent Asked Dementia Questions
- Can my loved one still remain at home?
- Should we move my mother to another level of care or when should we?
- How can I get my parent to accept care?
- How much does this cost (in home care, assisted living care, skilled nursing, etc.)?
- How can I obtain an unbiased professional assessment as my siblings all disagree on the next step?
- Should my dad still be driving?
- Why is my loved one so angry all the time?
- Does my parent have a memory disorder?
- How can I decrease my involvement being a caregiver to free up my time to be a daughter (son)?
- I am out of town; how can I continue to help my parent remain independent without having to move back to Pittsburgh.
- I think my mother (Father): isn’t bathing, can’t manage money, is not taking medication as prescribed, is sleeping too much, makes up information.
We answer these problems through our customized approach in completing an assessment
I have been practicing as an Aging Life Care Manager for almost 20 years and have been asked this question at least 100 times. I frequently here, “we really see the usefulness and benefit of your service, but how can we convince our parents to let you in”? My response is typically, “Every situation is…
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Our customized approach:
We meet the family and client where they currently are at in managing the person with dementia. Our assessment is customized to the person with Dementia and occurs in their current living environment.
Holistic Aging’s unique performance-based assessment approach:
- Observation: this is one of the best ways to predict cognition
- Ability to perform their IADL’s: “Instrumental activities of daily living,” or IADL’s are activities related to independent living and include preparing meals, managing money, shopping for groceries or personal items, performing light or heavy housework, doing laundry, and using a telephone.
- We look at the individual’s ability to solve problems outside of routine or habit.
- Executive Function: The set of cognitive processes that allow one to act independently of the environment
- Cognitive Function: Memory, Orientation, Language, Math, and Visuospatial
- Family Member input: each family member may see the person with dementia’s abilities differently – so we attempt to get all prospective.
Based upon the above
- We can comfortably offer family recommendations on is the current living environment safe for both the individual and person with dementia or do they need to consider another alternative now or in the future.
- We can also offer recommendations on how to manage the current situation to make it safer, secure and improve quality of life of the person with dementia.
- We develop a customized plan for each person with dementia, taking into account their current type of dementia, where they are in the disease process, financial status, ability to improve current living environment along with the family and client desires.