Dementia Caregiver Tips for COVID-19

Our team is here to keep you informed with the most useful dementia caregiver tips for COVID-19.

Providing caregiving assistance for your family member with dementia is complicated under the best of conditions; mix in a global pandemic, one that calls for social distancing, masks, and meticulous sterilization of both ourselves and the environment, and the challenge may seem impossible.

Hired Hands Homecare’s team of caregivers offers the following dementia caregiver tips to help reduce anxiousness and irritation for those diagnosed with dementia, while keeping both them and their caregivers safe:

• Make self-care a top priority. Now more so than ever, it’s extremely important to assess your own personal degree of stress, and take action to make sure you’re healthy – both physically and emotionally. You can only supply the best help for a senior loved one if your own needs are met. This may mean reducing time spent watching the news as well as on social media, maintaining connections with close friends, and taking time for pleasant, enjoyable hobbies.
• Focus on hygiene. Proper handwashing techniques are critical for everybody, but may be tricky for those with Alzheimer’s to uphold. Depending on the senior’s stage of the disease, it may help to wash your hands alongside the senior, showing your loved one each step – one at a time; or, position signs near the sink in the bathroom and kitchen with a reminder to scrub for 20 seconds. And remember that repetition, a common behavior in Alzheimer’s, can perhaps work in your favor in this case.
• Choose your words very carefully. When speaking to a senior loved one with Alzheimer’s about changes connected to COVID-19, it is critical to keep it simple, utilizing a calm and reassuring tone. Beth Kallmyer, Vice President of Care and Support at the Alzheimer’s Association, recommends statements such as, “We have to stay inside because that’s most safe for us, but we’ll do it together. I’ll be with you and we’ll be okay.”
• Make certain you have a backup plan. If you happened to be identified as having COVID-19 yourself, or another health condition which could keep you from safely providing help for a loved one with dementia, it’s vital to have a strategy established for who could help step in to fulfill your home care responsibilities. A professional home care agency, such as Hired Hands Homecare, is the ideal choice, with professional caregivers who are experienced in specialized Alzheimer’s care.

Allow Hired Hands Homecare, providers of elderly care in Santa Rosa and surrounding areas, to help you. Our specialized Alzheimer’s caregivers are fully trained and experienced in both following proper protocol related to minimizing the danger for contracting coronavirus, as well as in the unique type of care that’s most effective for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Give us a call at (866) 940-4343 to learn more about our services and how we provide the kind of elderly care Santa Rosa and the surrounding areas trust most. To learn more about the different areas we serve in California, please visit our Locations & Service Areas page.