Senior Sunrise

About 80% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease are cared for by family members, who often lack adequate support, finances, or training for this difficult job. Few diseases disrupt a patient and his or her family so completely or for so long a period of time as Alzheimer’s. The patient’s family endures two separate losses and grieves twice:

• First, they must grieve for the ongoing disappearance of the personality they recognize. Dealing with the patient throughout the course of the disease is like Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. No sooner has the caregiver grappled with one set of problems, when the patient’s further deterioration creates new and more intractable ones.
• Finally, the caregiver must grieve the actual death of the person.

Often, caregivers themselves begin to show signs of mental disorder or ill health. The disease may even have negative effects on the immune systems of the patients’ partners. Depression, empathy, exhaustion, guilt, and anger can play havoc with even a healthy individual faced with the care of a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s. The care-giving spouse is usually elderly and often frail. Children are likely to have grown up and may live far away

Although the great majority of caregivers have expressed their need for good information, in a 2001 study only 28% of caregivers believe they have received thorough and helpful information from their doctors. It is important for caregivers to receive counseling and support for themselves. Studies suggest that caregivers who are offered counseling on coping and handling stress experience fewer reactions to their patient’s behavioral problems than those without such help. In one study in which caregivers took part in support programs, institutionalization of the patient was delayed by a year. National and local Alzheimer’s associations are available and can provide important support and other services.

 Source: The American Journal of Alzheimer’s Care and Related Disorders & Research, Nov/Dec 1989