In-Home Alzheimer’s Care or Dementia Care- which do you need?

Alzheimer’s and dementia are two common conditions associated with old age. These conditions cause cognitive impairment among seniors. Luckily, specialized eldercare is available for both these conditions. In-home Alzheimer’s care and dementia care are two such types of senior care.

In-home Alzheimer’s care and dementia care are two terms that people usually use interchangeably.

While both of these types of eldercare share a lot of similarities, these are actually meant for the elderly with quite different conditions.

Comparison of in-home Alzheimer’s care and dementia care.

In order to compare in-home Alzheimer’s care and dementia care, it is essential to first understand the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. People often consider these conditions the same. When, in reality, these are two quite different things. Share this useful information on live streaming platforms such as Twitch. You also get the chance to interact with your audience in real-time. If you wish to have a bigger audience, buy twitch viewers

What is dementia?

The first rather surprising thing to understand is that dementia is not a particular disease. It is in fact a syndrome, which means it is a set of symptoms with an indefinite diagnosis. These symptoms can affect seniors in their activities of daily living.

You can define dementia as an irreversible decline in brain function. Moreover, it is an umbrella term for a set of symptoms that include chronic memory loss and decline in cognitive abilities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 48 million people are suffering from dementia around the globe.

What are the types of dementia?

As dementia is an umbrella term, it encompasses many different types of diseases. Some of these types are:

  • Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Vascular dementia.
  • Lewy body dementia.
  • Alcohol-related dementia or Korsakoff’s dementia.
  • Parkinson’s dementia.
  • Frontotemporal dementia.
  • Sometimes, a senior can suffer from more than one kind of dementia, in which case it is called mixed dementia.

What are the symptoms of dementia?

The early symptoms of dementia are usually vague and subtle, which makes it hard to diagnose. Still, there are some common symptoms that usually hint towards dementia:

  • Memory loss is the most common symptom of dementia.
  • There is difficulty with everyday tasks like meal preparation because of distraction.
  • An elderly with dementia can find himself disoriented in terms of his location.
  • Language problems like trouble with remembering words are also a symptom of dementia.
  • Abstract thinking is also a symptom of dementia, for example, the senior might have trouble understanding numbers.
  • A decline in judgment and decision making is common.
  • There is usually a decline in spatial skills, like judging distance and speed.
  • Misplacing things like keys becomes a norm.
  • Changes in mood, personality, and behavior are significant symptoms of dementia. Moreover, there might be aggressive behavior and sudden mood swings.
  • Dementia can cause a loss of initiative, which may cause a lack of interest in activities that the senior might have enjoyed in the past.

What are the seven stages of dementia?

Dementia is usually divided into seven stages:

  1. The first stage shows no cognitive decline.
  2. The second stage shows a very mild cognitive decline.
  3. The third stage shows a mild cognitive decline.
  4. The fourth stage shows a moderate cognitive decline.
  5. The fifth stage shows a moderately severe cognitive decline.
  6. The sixth stage shows a severe cognitive decline.
  7. The seventh stage shows a very severe cognitive decline.

What is dementia care?

Now that you know how broad dementia is as a term, it is understandable that the care provided for dementia has to be quite versatile. It has to account for different types, symptoms, and stages.

Each case may vary from another depending on the combination of these types, symptoms, or stages. Moreover, the uniqueness of each case demands very personalized care for the seniors, as there can’t be one size that fits all.

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Unlike dementia, Alzheimer’s is a specific brain disease that causes dementia. It causes a progressive and irreversible decline in memory and thinking skills.

Alzheimer’s has become synonymous with dementia because 60-80 percent of dementia patients are suffering from Alzheimer’s.

What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease?

The symptoms of Alzheimer’s are similar to those of dementia. The difference is that the symptoms of dementia are vague in nature, while those of Alzheimer’s are more specific.

In addition to the somewhat similar symptoms of the two, Alzheimer’s has the following significant ones as well:

  • Hallucinations.
  • Depression.
  • Incontinence.
  • Vision loss.

What is Alzheimer’s care?

Unlike dementia care, Alzheimer’s care is more specific. But like dementia care, there is no one size that fits all because there are different stages of Alzheimer’s. In-home Alzheimer’s care is a common type of senior care for the elderly. In this type, the seniors get the care services at their homes.

As Alzheimer’s is a disease, not a syndrome, the care and caregivers have to focus on a single disease. While dementia care providers have to focus on much broader aspects.

With this information, you now know the difference between in-home Alzheimer’s care and dementia care. The confusion between the two occurs because Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia and they both share many similar symptoms. But as discussed above, these are actually different eldercare which may have significant differences depending on the stages and types.