FEATURE ARTICLE
Tips for Dementia Caregivers at Home and Facilities During COVID-19

By:Alz.org

Caregivers of individuals living with Alzheimer’s and all other dementia should follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and consider the following tips:

• For people living with dementia, increased confusion is often the first symptom of any illness. If a person living with dementia shows rapidly increased confusion, contact your health care provider for advice. Unless the person is having difficulty breathing or a very high fever, it is recommended that you call your health care provider instead of going directly to an emergency room. Your doctor may be able to treat the person without a visit to the hospital.
• People living with dementia may need extra and/or written reminders and support to remember important hygienic practices from one day to the next.
  - Consider placing signs in the bathroom and elsewhere to remind people with dementia to wash their hands with soap for 20 seconds.
  - Demonstrate thorough hand-washing.
  - Alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol can be a quick alternative to hand-washing
  - Ask your pharmacist or doctor about filling prescriptions for a greater number of days to reduce trips to the pharmacy.
• Think ahead and make alternative plans for the person with dementia should adult day care,
  
• Respite, etc. be modified or canceled in response to COVID-19.
• Think ahead and make alternative plans for care management if the primary caregiver should become sick.

Tips for caregivers of individuals in assisted living

• Check with the facility regarding their procedures for managing COVID-19 risk. Ensure they have your emergency contact information.
• If visitation is not allowed, ask the facility how you can have contact with your family member. Options include telephone calls, video chats or even emails to check in.
• If your family member is unable to engage in calls or video chats, ask the facility how you can keep in touch for updates.

Considerations if your family member’s residential facility has an incidence of COVID-19
It is important to note that there are no simple answers and, at this time, there is no way to completely eliminate the risk of your family member being exposed to COVID-19. However, there are some questions to consider if you are faced with this situation.

Moving a person home

• What level of care does the person need on a day-to-day basis?
  - Is your family able to provide the care needed?
  - While limiting the number of people who have contact with the individual is important, it is also important to assess the number of people needed to provide adequate care.
• Does anyone in your family have COVID-19 currently?
• Are there individuals in the home who work outside of the home? If so, the risk for exposure is increased.
• Is it possible to hire home care workers?

Maintaining the person in the facility

• Ask the facility about their quarantine procedures. What is your level of confidence that CDC guidelines are being followed?
• How many people in the facility have been impacted by COVID-19? Are those affected staff, residents or both?
• Is your family member able to follow social distancing procedures (with or without help)?
  - In some cases, the person may not be able to walk or move about on their own. This could help maintain social distancing.
• Does the facility have and use personal protective equipment?
• How many staff members interact with your family member on a regular basis? Is the facility able to limit the number of staff who work with your family member?
• Is the facility adequately staffed to provide the level of care your family member requires?

Moving to another facility
Moving a family member to another facility may be an option. However, there is no way to know whether the new facility will remain free of COVID-19 cases.

• Is the facility accepting new residents?
  - Some facilities are not accepting new residents, depending on location.
• Have there been COVID-19 cases in the new facility? ■