How To Care For Parents With Memory Impairment?

Dealing with parents having impaired memory can be tough for children, even if they are adults. Memory impairment means loss of memory, which can be mild or severe and can affect reasoning skills as well as concentration and perception. Today, millions of Americans are caregivers of their parents with memory impairment. Are you also a caregiver who is working tirelessly to take proper care of his or her parents with such cognitive problems? If yes, here are some tips that may help you in the long run to overcome your caregiving challenges.

Understand the situation

Try to find out when your parents started to show symptoms of memory impairment. Is it all of a sudden? It is vital to understand that their condition may be because of any underlying disease such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Brain tumor, and so on.

Get medical assessment

Once you have developed an understanding of the current situation, you must get a medical assessment to know whether the impairment is chronic, progressive, or mild. A medical assessment will also help you to know about the medicine, treatments available, and more things that will prove handy in planning ahead as a caregiver.

Know the daily needs

Evaluate the kind of assistance that your parents may need from you to meet their daily needs. This may vary from assistance in paying grocery bills to dressing. Knowing the daily needs of your parents will also help you to evaluate whether you can meet those needs without any help from your other family members or not.

Create a timetable

Your next move should be to create a timetable. This is important so that you can finish all the tasks within a scheduled timeframe, and can have some time to indulge in self-care. Having a timetable will also help you to prioritize the caregiving tasks over other non-caregiving tasks like laundry or mopping.

Look at the finances

When you have decided to become a caregiver of your parents, you have to be careful about the finances too. If memory impairment is because of progressive cognitive disease, you may have to stay at home for more hours or may have to look for part-time work options that can seriously affect your finances. There can be also recurrent medical bills and doctor’s appointments which you have to take care of.

Ask help from siblings (if any)

Acknowledge that you can’t do all the caregiving tasks alone without experiencing burnout. So, ask help from siblings (if any) or other family members. If they are not too eager to do caregiving duties, ask them to help you in meal preparation, grocery shopping, or laundry.

Connect with others

Socialize with your loved ones by squeezing time out of your busy schedule. If visiting your friend’s home is not possible, have a conversation over the phone. Make sure to browse the web to get connected with other people who are taking care of their parents so that you can know that you are not alone.

Apart from the above tips, make sure to not neglect your own health. So, try to have time for yourself. Eat nutritious food and do exercise to stay fit and healthy. If you feel things are getting beyond your control, you can always opt for caregiving coaching from an experienced caregiver.