When Someone You Know Has Dementia by June Andrews

Author:June Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-77164-216-3
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2016-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

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Staying at Home

Staying at Home

STUDIES SHOW THAT many older people want, and expect, to stay at home until they die, but they don’t seriously prepare for it, and don’t do anything until circumstances force them to do so. They don’t make preparations in their current home, and they have a narrow view of what help around the house they’d find acceptable in future.

Can you stay at home forever? Most people with dementia live at home. In the UK, it is known that half of those with dementia who live in their own home live alone. In the United States, it may be even higher, though this is hard to measure because so many have not been diagnosed, and so cannot be counted. In other countries, the number of people with dementia at home varies. For example, in countries where there is not a highly developed care home or nursing home industry, such as India, nearly everyone with dementia is currently living at home. In countries with access to low-cost overseas domestic staff, such as Hong Kong or Singapore, it is possible to stay at home with such support for longer. Change is taking place as women’s working patterns and the numbers of children change, and that is why having dementia and staying at home is often described as a “women’s issue.” In the United States, almost two-thirds of people with dementia are women, and women also make up two-thirds of the caregivers.

It is perfectly possible for a person with dementia to be happy at home for a long time and to do very well right to the end of life. However, some people reach a stage where they need to be looked after more intensively. Dementia is a long-term condition that gradually worsens, but many people with dementia become ill and die of something else before the symptoms get too serious, so it’s important to plan for living well and not feel that everything has suddenly shuddered to a halt the day the diagnosis is given. This chapter gives some help in understanding how to make care at home work.

My dad started to lose some of his words and reached the point where he could not spell his own name. But we traveled and walked and worked in the garden right up till the day he had his heart attack and died. (Daughter of 67-year-old man with early-onset dementia)

In general, people want to put off as long as possible the time when they might have to give up their own home to go to other accommodation. Good care homes and nursing homes are in despair because of bad publicity about a small number of really unsatisfactory care homes. The good ones provide charming and comfortable places for people to live in at a difficult time of life; but calamitous stories dominate the press and public imagination. A 2013 CTV newscast is typical of the sort of story that worries people. It reported suspension of staff after secret

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