We are joined by Board certified General Psychologist, Dr
Natalie Edmonds, you know, as our parents get
older, they may start to need help getting around
the house and many homes, they just aren't equipped
. Numbers from the Census Bureau found that less than
10% of homes are aging ready. So what does
it mean to be aging ready? And how can
you upgrade your home to have everything that your parents
really need? Well, Dr Natalie Edmonds is here
to talk about that. Plus how to know if
your parents are showing signs of dementia. And I'm
so happy you're here to talk about this because it
is a serious issue affecting so many people, but
they don't know what to look for. So,
help us, what should they look for doctor?
All right. So, first of all, when
we talk about early dementia warning signs, it's important
to know that if somebody is showing these signs,
it doesn't necessarily mean automatically they have dementia, it
could be something else. So it's just a prompt
to go get checked out further. But things like
um activities in interest they've loved all their life all
of a sudden they're not doing it anymore. Maybe
the activities and interests, they've loved doing all their
life, they're making mistakes. Like maybe if they
were a card player, they don't remember the rules
or they're forgetting or they can't remember the card that
they played, misplacing things in unusual places and then
not remembering them later, having difficulty in a conversation
like this, knowing what the, what was the
question and how do I keep going? So,
if I'm missing my keys or missing my wallet,
it's not the same thing. No, especially if
you find them later and you remember them later.
So we're all good there. Ok. Sometimes you
walk into a room and you're thinking, I don't
remember why I walked into that room, but that's
not necessarily a sign of something, not necessarily a
sign. There are common thinking, you know,
mishaps that we all have and aren't necessarily a sign
of dementia. A lot of us forget what we
walked into a room for and we go about and
then we remember. Oh yeah, that's what it
was. Ok. Good because that happens to be
on a daily basis. You're like, wait,
what's going on, you know, but it could
just be stress or tiredness or things like that.
You're really looking for a significant impairment in their daily
life. Like, is it significantly negatively impacting their
daily life? We all have, you know,
things we forget from time to time, maybe an
appointment, something like that but when it's starting to
have that negative impact, that's when we really become
concerned. Well, how many people around the world
would you say have dementia? And how common is
it? So approximately fif over 55 million people around
the world have some form of dementia and about one
in 10 people in the United States have some form
of dementia. Now, what about the people who
have to care for them and, and trying to
figure out either as a family or as a partner
, what to do and how to navigate, you
know, this new world, right? That is
where my heart is at the dementia caregivers. They're
in the US alone last year, it was estimated
there were 11 million unpaid caregivers for people with dementia
. So the family members, the friends, they're
really carrying the way of helping keep their loved ones
safe at home. And it's really important for them
to get information, have trustworthy experts that they can
go to surround themselves with support. It's really hard
on them and the experts around them is really important
, but first they have to get diagnosed. So
how do you prepare after someone is diagnosed? Then
what, what's the next step? So when somebody
is diagnosed with dementia for the family member, doing
whatever they can to educate themselves on the disease,
common symptoms and behaviors, the person with dementia might
start to do things that are pretty strange or not
usual or not typical and knowing how to respond to
their loved one in a way that doesn't increase the
behavior or make the relationship worse is going to be
really important. And then there's also like the financial
paperwork, mental, like, uh, medical paperwork
power of attorneys making sure things like that are in
order is going to be important as well. I
know you were talking, uh, or thinking about
the house and like, really setting them up for
success. So how do we do that? Ok
. So one of the best bets to help make
a home as great as possible for the person to
be able to function. If possible, consult a
occupational therapist, they're best at being able to figure
out what do you do during the day. What's
really important to you? How can we arrange the
home to make it fit your needs? But there's
two general ways to approach it. One is what
can you change in the home and then what are
tools you could use to help yourself in the home
? So if we're thinking about changes to the home
that might be installing a ramp or grab bars or
a shower chair or um security cameras to see who's
coming in and out of the home or smoke alarms
and carbon monoxide detectors working. And then there's typical
tools you can use like, you know, making
sure they have canes and making sure they have um
you know, medication reminders if needed And what about
, like, you know, you see those,
like, medical alert, kind of? That's so
good, is it? Yes. And that's so
great because, well, there's a couple of things
there. But what's really great about that is you
don't have to press it. Only if you fall
in, you can use it. If somebody's breaking
in. If there's a fire, it's too emergency
. You know, and they can talk through it
without having to go find their phone. The tricky
thing is if you're dealing with somebody with dementia is
they have to be able to understand when is an
emergency and when should I press it and to remember
to press it? Right. So it's not a
fail safe, but it is a great tool.
That's a good point. Now, I would like
to know more about, is there a way to
slow it down? Like we gave some of the
elders in our family, like crossword puzzles and you
know, different things to try to get them to
learn new techniques to try to keep their brain firing
. Is that helping at all? Yes. So
there's a lot of good information that lifestyle can help
prevent dementia. So you're going to have your best
bet at catching it before the disease, disease happens
. So, for us right now, uh evidence
shows that changes in your brain happen 20 years before
dementia comes about like we right now are, it's
really important that we're doing what we can to take
care of our health, staying cognitively fit, doing
crossword puzzles, learning a language being social, loneliness
is a risk factor for dementia. Yeah. So
, those things can be helpful, eating healthy,
not so much sugar or processed foods, those things
do matter. Exercise. But if someone has dementia
trying to have them do a crossword puzzle might not
be the best thing to do. Well, if
they enjoy it and they like it, even if
they're following the rules, they're not following the rules
and they don't know what they're doing, let them
do it. It's not going to hurt them but
trying to force somebody who already has dementia to go
through a crossword puzzle because you think it's going to
help improve them in some way when it's adding to
their frustration or agitation isn't something that is recommended,
anger them more because you'd be mad. Now,
what about the conversations to have with, you know
, the rest of your family, your kids to
talk about what's going on with, you know,
the people that you love, love? No,
that's important. And it really depends on the age
of the kid and how much you want to share
. So, so, so for younger kids letting
them know, hey, you know, grandma might
not, you know, may say some things sometimes
that can be hurtful. She has a condition that's
going on. It's, you know, with her
brain just being open and honest and discussing it.
With them. There can be lots of, unfortunately
, family turmoil when there's typically one main caregiver and
other people in the family who kind of visit every
now and then or don't see the big picture.
And sometimes it's easy for the person with dementia to
not look like they're so impaired or not look like
they have so many problems, but the person who's
with them every day sees the problems. And so
sometimes there's a little bit of turmoil between the family
there. But just being honest, sharing the good
stuff, also sharing the hard stuff and making sure
you're reaching out and asking for help whenever possible.
Like the more other family members can spend time with
that person, the more they'll be able to see
the challenges that person is going through. Yeah,
we have people on my family that were dealing with
the same thing and they would never ask for help
, but they were drowning at the same time.
So you have to get the help and have that
self care that we always talk about before you can
be a better caretaker. Exactly. I always say
it's hard to ask for help and it's also hard
not to ask for help. So which hard do
you want? Hopefully the one that's going to give
you the better results. So if you had one
piece of advice to give families that are in this
situation right now, what would it be? You're
not alone? And to connect with people that are
in a similar situation to here what's working for them
, what they've tried, what's made things worse.
Like, just don't be, don't isolate yourself,
connect with other people going through this. Yeah.
And real quick before you go, I wanna ask
, is this something that you can pass down?
Like, how much more likely am I to have
dementia if someone else in my family has it?
Yeah. genetic risk. So there's deterministic genes.
I mean, if you have this type of gene
, you're going to get it no matter what,
less than 1% of the population has those, there's
other genes that are, um doesn't necessarily mean you
are going to get it. So a lot of
times people are worried my mom has this and my
grandma had it. It doesn't necessarily mean you are
going to get it, especially if you are paying
attention to the lifestyle factors, your diet, your
exercise, cognitive stimulation, social engagement. So a
lot to digest and thank you so much for your
time and thank you so much. We really appreciate
it. Doctor Natalie Edmonds. Thank you.