Buying advanced living options can be frightening, especially if you or a loved one needs to move right away due to a serious medical condition. Both assisted living and memory care offer supportive care for patients with a variety of health conditions, including cognitive impairment. Memory care, on the other hand, specializes in providing care for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia through dementia-friendly activities and staff knowledgeable about the psychological and physiological effects of cognitive impairment.
Read this article to learn about the two common types of senior living – assisted living and memory care – and how to determine the best care for an aging parent or spouse.
What is Memory Care?
Apartment-style living, common areas, and shared meals are among the similarities between memory care facilities and assisted living communities. But memory care offers a more specialized form of assisted living to meet the needs of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia. Communities are designed with additional safety features to ensure that residents with cognitive impairments are cared for in a secure environment.
Additionally, assistance with daily living activities is provided by memory care facilities. Staff in memory care facilities receive specialized training to comprehend the difficulties and annoyances faced by dementia patients. They have skills and strategies in handling difficult behaviors and supporting residents so that they can enjoy a meaningful life.
Memory care communities also provide enrichment activities, but these have a stronger therapeutic bent. For instance, music therapy may be provided in addition to musical entertainment because it has been demonstrated that music helps dementia sufferers communicate more effectively and trigger memories.
What is Assisted Living?
Seniors in assisted living receive assistance with daily tasks, companionship, independence, privacy, and security in a setting that mimics a home. Numerous assisted living facilities offer apartment-style living with housekeeping and maintenance services, communal areas, meals, and activities.
Residents are capable of taking care of themselves, but they might need assistance with walking, dressing, taking medications, bathing, or grooming. In assisted living facilities, trained caregivers are on hand to help you or a loved one as much or as little as you need if you or they struggle with any of these tasks.
The possibility of social interaction is one of assisted living’s biggest advantages. Communities frequently provide a variety of activities to suit a range of tastes, including musical entertainment, game nights, movies and history lectures, art classes, exercise, holiday celebrations, and faith-based activities.
Comparison Between Memory Care and Assisted Living
Particular Activities
Did you know that certain activities, such as music therapy, can help your loved one with dementia access different parts of their brain? While assisted living communities focus on entertaining residents, memory care communities offer dementia-specific activities tailored to the unique cognitive needs of people with dementia. Dementia patients’ difficult behaviors are a common way for them to express their distress. These expressions of worry can be stopped with the right timely intervention, which will instead keep seniors busy and engaged in their surroundings.
Specialized Environment
Memory care facilities also provide a setting that is especially suited to the requirements and security worries of people with memory and judgment problems. Because these extra precautions are not provided in assisted living facilities, people with dementia may feel unsafe there. Not just memory and cognition are affected by dementia; all five senses are as well. Communities that provide memory care include environmental safeguards like motion-sensor lighting or one-touch sinks as well as safety measures like door alarms. These added features enable residents to live in a safer and more independent way.
Diet Arrangement
Assisted living facilities provide three meals a day, frequently in a very social setting. Memory care facilities not only provide meals and social interaction at the dinner table, but they also provide a setting that promotes independence and dignity for people with dementia. Nutritional issues may arise with dementia. Specialized diets are available in memory care facilities to make sure that residents are getting the calories they require in a way that best suits their present requirements and preferences. In order to best exercise control over their diet, residents are given a variety of options. They are also served in a setting that is less distracting and provides adaptive plates or utensils.
Extra Experience
Both assisted living and memory care communities employ similar medical professionals, such as nurses and nursing assistants. But staff members in memory care facilities have extra training and experience dealing with the problems that people with dementia frequently experience, like swallowing problems, wandering, and anxiety. Most states require memory care community employees, from the administrator to the housekeepers, to participate in continuing education courses that aid in their understanding of the brains of people with dementia while teaching them techniques for reducing distress and providing for residents. Memory care is typically a better choice if your loved one exhibits anxious behaviors or seems anxious, or if you have trouble supporting and reassuring them at home.
Making a Decision
While a dementia care community may be too constrictive, people with early dementia who can live independently or only require a little daily assistance may thrive in an assisted living community. Give the gift of dementia care to a loved one if they have difficulty carrying out daily tasks, depend on you for help most of the time, or appear scared and lonely in their home. Whatever option you decide on, pick a neighborhood that has a lot of experience helping senior citizens. When you visit the community, make sure your loved one is at ease by asking lots of questions.
How to Choose the Best Senior Living Community?
- Keep in mind their particular needs. “What you want to know is if there’s an exercise program or rehabilitation options,” says Del Collo. “And how frequently can you bring your loved one visitors? Enter the building and continue past the foyer to observe how busy the common area is.”
- Offer your elderly loved one advice. “If the individual is competent enough to weigh in, then they need to be a part of the conversation,” says Elder law attorney Dan Del Collo III from Moorestown, New Jersey. “If not, hopefully, the family has a power of attorney that allows them to make decisions of this nature.”
- To help you choose, think about using a referral service. Finding assisted living and memory care is challenging, especially if you live in a different state. Free referral services like A Place for Mom and Caring.com can recommend assisted living and memory care facilities that fit your budget and your loved one’s needs. They might even aid in planning live video tours.
- Ask for reviews. Find out from the loved ones of current residents how the facility has treated them. These guidelines are particularly crucial when a resident may be unable to speak for themselves because of impairments.
Conclusion
Assisted living may be a good option if you or a loved one just needs a little help. The best option for you is memory care if your elderly parent has severe memory loss and requires constant support or 24-hour round-the-clock supervision.
FAQs
How Does Memory Care Differ from a Nursing Home?
Memory care communities typically operate under a specialized assisted living license. However, some memory care communities are part of skilled nursing communities, once referred to as “nursing homes.” In both cases, a memory care community only serves adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Why is It Called Memory Care?
Memory care communities only serve adults living with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia. These communities have staff members who have undergone specialized training in dementia care best practices, and housing options are created with features that address the difficulties brought on by cognitive decline.
