Home Safety for People with Alzheimer's Disease

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• Introduction
• What is Alzheimer's Disease?
• What are the Symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease?
• General Safety Concerns
• Is it Safe to Leave the Person with Alzheimer's Disease Alone?
• Home Safety Room-By-Room
• Throughout The Home
• Outside Approaches to the House
• Home Safety Behavior-By-Behavior
• Special Occasions/Gatherings/Holidays
• Impairment of the Senses
• Driving
• Warning Signs of Unsafe Driving
• Natural Disaster Safety
• Who Would Take Care of the Person with Alzheimer's disease if Something Happened to You?
• Conclusion
• For More Information

Introduction

Caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a challenge that calls upon the patience, creativity, knowledge, and skills of each caregiver. We hope that this article will help you cope with some of these challenges and develop creative solutions to increase the security and freedom of the person with Alzheimer's disease in your home, as well as your own peace of mind.

This information is for those who provide in-home care for people with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders. Our goal is to improve home safety by identifying potential problems in the home and offering possible solutions to help prevent accidents.

We begin with a checklist to help you make each room in your home a safer environment for the person with Alzheimer's disease. Next, we hope to increase awareness of the ways specific impairments associated with the disease can create particular safety hazards in the home. Specific home safety tips are listed to help you cope with some of the more hazardous behaviors that may occur as the disease advances. We also include tips for managing driving and planning for natural disaster safety. The article ends with a list of resources for family caregivers.

What is Alzheimer's Disease?

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, irreversible disease that affects brain cells and produces memory loss and intellectual impairment in as many as 4.5 million American adults. This disease affects people of all racial, economic, and educational backgrounds.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in adults. Dementia is defined as loss of memory and intellect that interferes with routine personal, social, or occupational activities. Dementia is not a disease; rather, it is a group of symptoms that may accompany certain diseases or conditions. Other symptoms include changes in personality, mood, or behavior.

Although Alzheimer's disease primarily affects people age 65 or older, it also may affect people in their 50s and, although rarely, even younger. Other causes of irreversible dementia include multi-infarct dementia (a series of minor strokes resulting in widespread death of brain tissue), Pick's disease, Binswanger's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), multiple sclerosis, and alcohol abuse. The recommendations in this article deal primarily with common problems in Alzheimer's disease, but they also may apply to any of the related dementing disorders.