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HomeHealthWhat Are The Activities Of Daily Living In Dementia Care?

What Are The Activities Of Daily Living In Dementia Care?

If a loved one has been diagnosed with dementia, you may have heard doctors and dementia care professionals talk about activities of daily living.

Abbreviated to ADLs by most health care professionals, activities of daily living represent a list of essential, everyday self-care tasks that everyone performs, including you.

Your loved one’s care team may have directly mentioned ADLs because there may come a time when they need help performing these tasks.

Many people living with dementia face challenges with ADLs as they reach the later stages of the disease, as they may lack the cognitive or motor skills to complete these tasks on their own. Is.

Difficulty with ADLs interferes with their ability to live independently, but it does not indicate the need to send their loved one to a nursing facility.

If you need help caring for your loved one, you can get dementia care services that come to you. These services help with ADLs in the comfort of your loved one’s home, so they can live with dignity in a familiar place.

Activities Of Daily Living What Are They?

Activities of daily living are basic self-care tasks that non-disabled people can perform on their own. For people with late-onset dementia, ADLs involve small tasks that would be awkward, difficult, or even impossible to do independently.

Personal Hygiene

Taking a shower to start the day or soaking in the shower at night are things you may take for granted. But those living with dementia, may not have the mobility or cognition to bathe themselves properly. Your loved one may even forget to take care of these things.

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The Meal

Proper nutrition is an essential building block of your loved one’s health. Unfortunately, this is not always easy to achieve as the disease progresses. Dementia can interfere with their ability to interpret hunger, while memory problems can make them confused about meal times. Brain changes can also affect their coordination, making it difficult to hold utensils, cook or feed themselves.

Dressing

When dementia affects a person’s cognition and coordination, it’s not easy to dress comfortably and appropriately for the weather. They may struggle to manipulate their limbs through clothing or manage zippers and buttons on their own. They may also fail to understand how these fasteners work, what order the clothes go in, or even why they need to put the clothes on in the first place.

Continuity

Physical and cognitive ability to use the bathroom is another ADL that becomes difficult with dementia. Someone living with the disease may lose the ability to understand their body’s signals, or they may not have the mobility or coordination to get to the bathroom in time.

Transfer And Mobility

Last but not least, transfer and mobility refer to a person’s ability to get up when they need to move. Although it may overlap with continuity, it refers to a wide range of movements, including standing up from chairs or walking from room to room.

Home Health Care Agencies Can Help With ADLs

This can be difficult when a loved one is completely dependent on you for activities of daily living. If you are finding it difficult to meet their needs on your own, home healthcare services can help. Home healthcare agencies preserve the health, comfort, and dignity of your loved one in their care by assisting them with each of the ADLs.

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