Two Things Families Need to Know

Families dealing with Alzheimer’s need to understand two things. The first is that Alzheimer’s disease demands behavior changes of everyone living with the disease – everyone except the person that has it. The second is that everyone lives with Alzheimer’s disease in his or her own way.

The biggest problem families encounter is that they don’t accept these two things. They try to fight, deny, and ignore the changes that they know are necessary, and they trap themselves in a battle they can’t win this way by expecting the person with Alzheimer’s to change. It’s not going to happen!

The greatest thing you can learn as a family is that you must begin with education about the person who has the disease – like what upsets them, makes them happy for the moment, or what agitates them. Keeping a daily journal and noting the things you learn about the person who has the disease is a great place to start…start learning, that is!