Are There Facilities That Can Take Care Of My Loved One With Alzheimer's Disease, And Are Some Types Better Than Others?

May 4, 2009 -- Question: Are there facilities that can take care of my loved one with Alzheimer's disease, and are some types better than others?

Answer: There are such facilities, and there's quite a quality, a range in what's available. So really what you need to do once you've decided that such a facility is needed is to ask around, visit different programs, talk to your area agency on aging and see if there are quality ratings.

What's most important , though, is to interact with the facility and make sure that you understand their philosophy, their experience in caring for people with Alzheimer's disease, the approach that they take in the daily lives of the patients, the resources they have in providing care, and the training of their staff.

Perhaps most important is that you want to find out the level of family involvement that they would agree to. I find that the more family is involved, the better the care is that the Alzheimer's patient is likely to get in the facility.

And that stands to reason. If the facility staff are seeing the family member engaged and involved and therefore caring for the patient, they will typically spend much more time and take much better care of the person with Alzheimer's.