5 Things to Look for in an Alzheimer’s Care Center

If your loved one has Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, it is best to scout out long-term care centers before there is a crisis. During recent years, many facilities started offering memory care services. Because there are few regulations and little oversight of what constitutes an adequate facility, here are five things to look for in an Alzheimer’s care center.

1. A Clean Health and Safety Record

 When you hear about tragedies that happen at long-term care facilities, these events often occur at places with a track record of numerous complaints, safety violations, and fines from government agencies. A Maryland elder law attorney can help you research memory care centers to locate the reports and disclosures these facilities must provide.

2. More Than a Label

Some facilities merely put a sign on the wall and call themselves dementia care centers. These places do not provide specialized services or tailor their physical structure to meet the needs of people with Alzheimer’s disease. All they do is jack up the cost to be a resident.

An existing nursing home or assisted living facility might move all of its residents with dementia into one wing and call that location a memory care center. Grouping people together is not the same thing as providing dementia services.

3. Keeping Residents Safe

A person with Alzheimer’s disease is at risk of wandering away from the facility, particularly at night. When this happens, the individual can get injured, become a victim of violent crime, or die from hypothermia, drowning, or other tragic events. Dementia care centers need to prevent “sundowning” and other wandering.

Some facilities protect the residents by locking the units to that no one can enter or leave. Highly restrictive environments, however, can cause people with Alzheimer’s disease to feel anxiety and restlessness, which increases the risk they will try to leave. A community designed for memory care, rather than an existing structure retrofitted for people with dementia, can provide perimeter security without making residents feel oppressed and imprisoned.

4. Resident Engagement

Social isolation can worsen Alzheimer’s disease. You do not want your loved one to be in a facility that uses the television in a large multi-purpose room as a babysitter for the residents.

It is essential that people with dementia stay physically and mentally active and engaged in their community. A good memory care center will offer a wide variety of activities for residents to select things that spark their interest.

There should be an abundance of programs throughout the day and evening so the majority of a person’s waking hours can be stimulating. The activity programming should fit a range of cognitive abilities, physical function, attention span, and other aspects of dementia.

5. A Well-Trained Staff

Working with people with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia can be challenging. The staff at the facility should have specialized training in dementia care. This training should teach the employees techniques for de-escalating the aggression and combativeness that can come with Alzheimer’s, and skills in caring for people with cognitive impairment and confusion.

There should be a low resident to staff ratio so the employees can provide the attentive care these individuals need. Many long-term care facilities are understaffed. These places “control” residents by drugging them with psychotropic medications instead of proving one-on-one care.

A Maryland elder law attorney can help you prepare legal documents that will protect your loved one with Alzheimer’s disease and your family. Contact us today.