It’s hard enough for people in great mental health to sleep at night or to cope from one day to the next during this pandemic. Imagine the toll the novel coronavirus is taking on the nearly six million older people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Heidi de Marco reports for Kaiser Health News on the difficulties they and their loved ones are facing.
If you are looking for assistance with caregiving for a loved one with dementia or other care needs, EngAGED is a national resource center that might be of help. It offers information on programs that provide telephone reassurance and wellness checks, help for people with dementia and other resources for older adults.
More than four million people with dementia still live in their homes, alone or with family. During this pandemic, they are living a very different life. Their daily routines have changed as has the world around them. It can be challenging for them to understand why their family and friends are not visiting and why they can’t go to the supermarket or the bank. They might find it difficult to understand why people around them are wearing face masks and why they must as well when they are out in public. All of this threatens their health and well-being further.
When home, reading the news can be downright chilling. Combine that with social isolation, and many older adults are facing serious stress and anxiety. Life becomes more emotionally challenging and all the harder for older people. And, caring for them becomes all the more difficult for the 16 million family caregivers in the nation.
Old ways of providing personal support through social interactions are no longer available. Support systems for people with dementia, to the extent they are available, are online. Many older adults are not capable of interacting with others virtually. And, those people who can go online do not get the same benefits online as they would in person.
Again, for guidance on resources to help the older people you love through this pandemic, check out EngAGED.
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