Patients with dementia who qualify for and are enrolled in hospice care typically are beyond the ability to express their end-of-life care preferences verbally.
For such patients, it is important to look for guidance from advance directives or from their family’s understanding of their values, especially when it comes to clarifying important treatment decisions related to feeding tubes, antibiotics, re-hospitalizations .
Many hospices are community advocates for and providers of education about the importance of advance care planning early in the course of the person’s illness, so that values and preferences can be communicated to proxy decision?makers. To read more, click here.
When it’s time to say good bye, The Alzheimer’s Care Resource Center has support and counseling available for caregivers- to learn more of our services, click here.
Great Read on saying Good Bye from Laura Bush- enjoy and SHARE!
When former first lady Laura Bush was campaigning with her husband for the governorship of Texas and raising her young twin girls, she was also taking care of her father, who had Alzheimer’s disease. He died in 1995. As part of The Shriver Report on Alzheimer’s, Bush shared the following essay about that struggle.
“For years I’ve been an advocate for health concerns like breast cancer and heart disease, because I believe lifelong good health begins with awareness. This truth has helped shape our fight against HIV/AIDS, heart disease and various cancers, but the same lesson can be applied to another leading cause of death in America — Alzheimer’s disease. Today it’s estimated that 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and someone develops a new case every 70 seconds. And while nearly 11 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers to those affected by Alzheimer’s, their stories often go untold. They’re on the front lines of fighting a disease that shows no reverence for a life well-lived. They see the slow fade of a once vibrant life. Their experiences can help raise awareness and spur research to find a cure, so we can build a future in which Alzheimer’s no longer exists.
