Trusted, Reliable In-Home Care

305-625-9299
Palmetto Bay

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Are You Caring For a Loved One
Who Has Alzheimer’s or Dementia?

Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s can be stressful, frustrating and exhausting.
Patients need to receive one-on-one cognitive stimulation
as well as specialized care in different aspects of daily living.

A Committed and Reliable Care Team
to support your loved one around the clock is essential.

We Offer All Our Clients and Their Families Five Elements of Effective Dementia & Alzheimer’s Home Care

The Affinity Care Method for Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Memory Loss

Affinity Home Care Safety

Safe Surroundings

To avoid triggering depression on the one hand and fear on the other, Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients need an environment with the right balance of activity and calmness. Our care specialists are trained in the best methods for creating and maintaining this balance, and can also advise you on how to modify a home for a patient’s optimal convenience, comfort, and safety.

Healthy Diet

Healthy Diet

The foundation of good health in old age begins with the right food: rich in fiber and antioxidants, with strict limits on fried dishes and artificial ingredients. To ensure your loved one gets the nutrients he or she needs, our caregivers will select foods and prepare meals that are good for the body and good for the brain.

Dementia's Physical Activity

Physical Activity

Equally important for limiting the effects of Dementia/Alzheimer’s – as well as extending your loved one’s physical independence – is exercise. That’s why a key part of our care includes motivating and assisting your loved one in performing the proper amount of varied physical activity (such as walking, swimming, or aerobics) each day.

Mind Activity

Cognitive Stimulation

Just like the body, the mind needs daily exercise in order to stay strong and healthy. To that end, our Dementia/Alzheimer’s care specialists will engage your loved one in entertaining, purposeful activities (including games, discussions, and learning activities) which stimulate the brain and appeal to their interests.

Social Engagement

Social Engagement

For the elderly, as for most people, full health also entails the emotional rewards and sense of dignity that come from interacting with the wider world. For that reason, our caregivers and support team will also assist your loved one in finding, joining, and attending interesting programs and events within your community.

Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Memory Loss Training is Required for our Caregivers

So clients can receive one-on-one cognitive stimulation as well as needed support for activities of daily living. More precisely, our caregivers will ensure you and your loved one receive assistance in all Five Elements of Effective Dementia & Alzheimer’s Home Care

Our Caregivers and Office Staff Also Help With:

  • Meal preparation
  • Bathing and toileting
  • Dressing and grooming
  • Errands and shopping trips
  • Laundry and light housekeeping
  • Transport to doctor’s appointments
  • Dedicated staffing
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Competitive pricing
  • No long-term contracts
  • On-call service, day or night
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee

For a loved one with Dementia and Alzheimer’s, there is no better place than the comfort and familiarity of home.
But for that to be feasible, it helps to have a team of dedicated professionals helping day or night 24/7.

To Guarantee Exceptional Care

We Provide Every Client With:

  • A Compassionate Caregiver – who delivers personalized compassionate home care.
  • A Care Coordinator – who coordinates care and provides ongoing support.
  • A Care Advocate – who monitors the quality of service 24/7, and attends to all client concerns.
  • On-Call Care Supervisors – ready to respond to calls anytime, day or night 24/7.

We continually strive to offer the highest-quality home care in Florida
with services that we guarantee to be:

  • Convenient: Caring for a loved one with Memory Loss can be exhausting – often requiring round-the-clock monitoring, careful notetaking, frequent doctor’s appointments, mobility assistance, and endless laundry.
    Our care specialists are happy to assist you with all these tasks and more – so you can get some much-needed rest while still giving your loved one the dignity that comes from living independently. And to give you maximum flexibility, we even offer on-call service (day or night) and flexible scheduling 24/7.
  • Comprehensive: To manage and minimize the effects of Dementia or Alzheimer’s, it is important to address not only your loved one’s physical and medical needs, but his or her social, emotional, and spiritual ones as well.
    That’s why we only pair our clients with experienced caregivers who know how to treat the disease holistically – via the Five Elements of effective eldercare that make up our Affinity Care Method.
    In other words, we take a big-picture approach in order to ensure your loved one enjoys his or her years in high spirits in comfortable home surrounding.
  • Protective: The scariest part of Dementia/Alzheimer’s is how dangerous it can be. Stories of patients starting accidental fires, wandering off at night, or turning violent on people they no longer recognize are common.
    For that reason, our caregivers are thoroughly trained to deal with such situations – and able to avoid them in the first place by creating an environment that is calm and comforting. Moreover, our team will gladly advise you on home modifications you can make for the safety of you and your loved ones.
  • Customized: Because Dementia/Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease impacting the parts of the brain that influence one’s personality and mood, it affects each person differently – making it a tricky illness for the inexperienced.
    To assist you, we have assembled a team of specialists with deep knowledge of the disease and the best methods for managing it.
    As a team, we will help you craft a structured routine of enjoyable activities, tailor-made for the type and stage of your loved one’s condition, as well as his or her particular interests and personality.
  • Affordable: We understand the difficulty of your situation – which is why we’ve strived to make our services as flexible and as competitively priced as possible while still ensuring the highest quality of care.
    As with all our services, you can increase or decrease the number of hours or request last-minute support at anytime, day or night. We also accept a wide variety of payment and insurance types.
    With Affinity Home Care, you need not burden yourself with the personal stress, lost income, or negative health effects that come from trying to care for your loved one all by yourself.

Caring For The Alzheimer’s Patient

Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s is stressful, frustrating and exhausting.
By knowing and following some basic guidelines, the task can be made easier.

 
 

  • Realize the person suffering from Alzheimer’s recognizes what’s happening to them – at least in the initial stages. They are not objects, but human beings with the same emotions, feelings and fears as you and me. Talk to them, and not at them. Far too many caregivers seem to think that a person suffering from Alzheimer’s isn’t aware when being referred to in the 3rd person – even when they are sitting in the same room with others present!
  • Never argue with an Alzheimer’s patient. It’s not only pointless, but self-defeating. Whatever was said by the patient one minute may be totally forgotten by them the next. This is because while their short term memory is compromised, long term memory is quite acute.
  • Avoid pointing out lapses in memory. Yes, Mom may be asking why Dad isn’t joining everyone for dinner – even though Dad passed on years ago. By reminding her Dad has died, you merely put her through the torment of loss all over again – and within hours she’ll have forgotten, and start asking for her husband again. Just say Dad is a bit busy in the next room and will join the family later.
  • You have to enter their reality. Alzheimer’s patients may see people who aren’t there, hear voices no one else hears, and take illusion for fact. For instance, it was found that having black and white checkerboard floor tiles was quite detrimental to Alzheimer sufferers. The reason? The black tiles were perceived as bottomless holes – and patients did all they could to avoid stepping into those “voids.” Plus, as the division between this life and the next grows thinner, who is to say that the patient isn’t truly experiencing things beyond our understanding?
  • Patience! Your loved one doesn’t like the situation any more than you do. But taking out your frustrations on them won’t make you feel any better, but it will make everyone involved feel worse.
  • Know your limits! You may have the best intentions in the world, but ruining your health and sanity isn’t a legitimate trade off to providing care.
  • You need time for youself. The most dedicated caregiver in the world still needs time for his or her self. Additionally, there may very well be other family members who need you as well. Pushing yourself to total exhaustion is never an acceptable option.

Alzheimer’s Initial Stages

It’s usually passed off as “just normal” signs of aging. Forgetting where one placed a wallet or handbag, or where the car is parked. Familiar names seem to vanish when trying to recall them, being just on the tip of the tongue but never making it all the way to full consciousness.

While these episodes do pass, they keep cropping up with increased frequency.

Many times the person experiencing these symptoms will effectively hide them from friends and family. It’s understandable, because no one likes to admit they’re not as sharp as they once were, or may be starting down the path to clinical dementia. Even if they do see a doctor, all too often the somewhat elderly are just sent away with pat on the back and a prescription to calm them down.

What To Watch Out For:

It will be a series of small incidents at first:

  • – You’ll notice the person is continually “misplacing” their personal belongings.
  • – Events that happened just a short while ago (weeks, days or even hours) seem to be forgotten far more frequently than usual.
  • – They may appear suddenly startled or frightened in what should be familiar places and surroundings – questioning where they are and where you are taking them.
  • – Confusion over common place happenings starts becoming noticeable.
  • – You’ll notice unusual mood swings. Though their basic emotions and personality remains more or less intact, they may become increasingly belligerent or argumentative. (This is often a defense mechanism for hiding the severity of the symptoms.)

As Alzheimer’s Progresses

The incidents mentioned above aren’t getting any better – rather they’re becoming more and more obvious. Unable to hide their frustrations, the person in question will start with drawing from previously anticipated activities.

What To Watch Out For:

  • – They may reduce or stop seeing friends and acquaintances.
  • – Daily walks or regular outings are no longer taken, many times because the person fears forgetting where they are or how to find their way home.
  • – If they are still driving, they’ll sometimes take off without noticing the passenger who was with them beforehand is no longer in the car.
  • – They become pronouncedly more withdrawn, confused, and are markedly reticent in speaking about what they feel is happening. The beginnings of paranoia are not uncommon.

It’s at this point medical advice should definitely be sought, as the person affected can soon become a danger to themselves and others. Not through acts of aggression, but through being unaware of their actions or surroundings.

Progressing Disabilities

As damage to the brain cells spreads, inappropriate behavior becomes more marked. The wall between reality and mind induced fantasy begins to break down. Alzheimer patients may see or hear individuals that are not present, or take images (like in wall murals) for actual physical things. Their memory lapses may also become increasingly dangerous – such as leaving the oven burners on, forgetting to turn off water – or leaving the premises and wandering about in a blank daze. Patients in these advanced stages will often need help in dressing, bathing and eating. Paradoxically, people in this stage may start talking far more than before, reliving older memories and experiences.

Final Stages

In the final stages of Alzheimer’s, patients may lose their ability to communicate, except through maybe grunts or half articulated syllables. They no longer recognize loved ones or friends. Motor skills are minimal, at best. Being bed-bound, they rely upon constant around the clock care.

The end result is finally death, usually through pneumonia, nutritional deficiencies or chronic dehydration.

Alzheimer’s & Related Dementia Symptoms, Considerations and Care

Alzheimer patients can live a good many years after the disease begins. While starting off with seemingly mild symptoms, such as forgetfulness or memory lapses, in the end stages of Alzheimer’s, the sufferer is often in a limbo of fear and shadows.

Not even recognizing their loved ones or current surroundings, it’s a heartbreaking situation for all involved. A once strong, vigorous parent or spouse is left a frail husk of their former selves.

Caring for an Alzheimer’s patient is both physically demanding and spiritually draining. All too often the caregiver is overwhelmed, and they themselves are in danger of succumbing to the daily, constant stress of seeing to the patient’s needs.

But with Alzheimer’s, there are ways in helping you cope with the situation as best as possible. You must recognize both the symptoms and the reality of Alzheimer’s.

Knowing what to expect at each stage of the disease will go a long way in helping you as a caretaker handle each day as it comes along.

What Exactly is Alzheimer’s Disease?

The typical Alzheimer’s brain is partly atrophied; with the brain cells clumped together in what are called “neurofibrillary tangles” or “plaques.”

The average human brain contains approximately 100 billion nerve cells, connecting at over 100 trillion points (synapses). With Alzheimer’s, these neurons begin to die off and the brain’s ability to transfer information dwindles.

In advanced stages, the brain actually shows dramatic shrinkage in size.

Since the brain is no longer effectively processing information – memory, personality and motor functions suffer as a result.

However, one should keep in mind that having these tangles and plaques does not necessarily mean Alzheimer’s is a given. In one United States study (called the “Nun Study”) nuns who spent there entire life in a cloister were examined after death.

Even though some of these nuns did exhibit the classical tangles and plaques consistent with Alzheimer’s, they never had any of the symptoms, living a healthy, well structured life up until the very end.

How Widespread Is Alzheimer’s?

These are the figures from the latest Alzheimer’s Association study – the 2009 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures:

  • – 5.3 million people are afflicted with Alzheimer’s
  • – Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the USA
  • – Every 70 seconds, a new case of Alzheimer’s is diagnosed

A Message for Patients and Their Families

It’s estimated that in less than 10 years, 1 in 4 Americans will be diagnosed with this disease.

Who’s At Risk?

The risk of Alzheimer’s increases with age, and symptoms usually start to appear at age 65 or older.

However, early onset dementia is not rare – with some cases starting at age 30.

The genetically related risk factor is the presence of the Apo lipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOE e4) allele.

Groups having this genetic trait in greater numbers are Africans, Inuits, Native American Indians, and Northern Europeans.

Environmental Factors

There are several toxins linked to both the severity and onset of Alzheimer’s, the most common being:

  • – Aluminum (processed foods, medications and personal hygiene products)
  • – Mercury (amalgam tooth fillings, industrial run off & ocean pollution)
  • – Fluoride (municipal water “treatments”)
  • – Copper (from copper lined cookware and environmental factors)

Some researchers also find relationships between electromagnetic fields such as cell phone radiation and Alzheimer’s. This does have a ring of truth, as cell phones emit high frequency radiation beamed directly into the user’s brain. Given the almost addictive use of cell phones in the younger generation, this can well be a catastrophe in the making.

Doctors also indicate that resistance to the pancreatic hormones as yet another cause of Alzheimer’s. With the incidents of diabetes exploding across the nation, this is a trend to carefully monitor.

(The aforementioned Nun Study did have some interesting observations. Nuns were asked to submit writing samples over the course of 20 years (1986 – 2008). Researchers found those nuns who had the greatest deterioration in writing skills also had the greatest tendency towards Alzheimer’s.)

Affinity Home Care offers the finest quality cost-effective home health services
to patients and families. Caregivers and support teams work closely
with patients, their families, and physicians to ensure:

Personalized Care in Various Aspects of Daily Living

  • Domestic Duties

    • Meal Preparation
    • Light Housekeeping
    • Laundry & Linen Changes
    • Shopping & Errands
    • Driving to Appointments
  • Personal Care

    • Bathing & Dressing
    • Personal Grooming
    • Bathroom Assistance
    • Incontinent Care
  • Safety & Security

    • Ambulating Assistance
    • Wheelchair Transfers
    • Medication Supervision
    • Range of Motion Exercises

Affinity Brings Unrivaled Expertise in Senior Home Care
Enabling Your Loved Ones to Remain Independent and Happy in their Homes

ADL

Activities of Daily Living (ADL):

are fundamental and routine functions and activities that people tend to do every day without needing assistance.

  • Eating: Assistance with feeding of daily meals and snacks
  • Bathing: Washing and bathing assistance in a tub or shower
  • Toileting: Assistance to and from the toilet, and associated personal hygiene
  • Transferring: Assistance transferring to a bed, chair or wheelchair
  • Continence Care: Care for aging people with bowel and urinary incontinence
  • Dressing: Help with clothing, any necessary braces or artificial limbs
ADL

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL):

are activities that enable an individual to live
independently in a community.

  • Errands and Shopping: Regular grocery and clothing shopping
  • Medication Reminders: Making sure your loved one takes medications as prescribed
  • Doctors Visits: Scheduling and arranging transportation to medical appointments
  • Light Housekeeping: Ensuring your loved one is living in a clean and safe environment
  • Meal Preparation: A caregiver can prepare a healthy and nutritious meal.
  • Use of Communication Devices: Assisting with use of telephone or other form of communication.

To enable seniors, the homebound, and the chronically disabled to
live independently in the safety and security of their own homes for as long as possible,

we also provide Hospice Support, Custodial Care, Joyful Companionship, Respite for Family
Caregivers, and other In-Home services.

For more information or to schedule a FREE In-Home consultation Call Us: