special concerns

learning to navigate unchartered waters

It can be difficult at times being a caregiver to a person with dementia. Without help from those who've been there, it's easy to get overwhelmed. As the disease progresses, the person loses skills and abilities that were once natural, requiring more help from you. He or she may engage in unusual or unsafe behaviors that are challenging to cope with, like hoarding or wandering. Low stress thresholds turn seemingly simple things, like a noise or a particular tone of voice, into triggers that can bring on anger or other kinds of stress.

Sometimes it seems that as soon as you've learned how to cope with one situation, things change again. Interventions that worked yesterday no longer work today, or a new difficult behavior emerges. And sometimes a person's skills, behavior, and memory fluctuate wildly from day-to-day or even within a single day.

There's no magic wand, but with the right know-how, you can make caregiving easier and safer. In this section, we'll share with you practical tips and strategies that have worked for other caregivers in similar special situations. And you'll get professional advice from our knowledgeable Advisory Board Members. We know it's not easy, we're caregivers too.