Do you have a family member with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia? There is little in terms of effective Alzheimer’s Disease conventional medical treatment, but there are many things that you and your family can do to maintain a high quality of life for your loved one and alleviate the stress of caring for someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
MSNBC Anchor Richard Lui talks about his experience caring for his father who was diagnosed with dementia 9 years ago. Richard has been ‘commuting’ from NYC to San Francisco every weekend for the last few years to take care of his father. Richard has been there for his father through all stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, made difficult decisions, and experienced the ups and downs associated with the caregiving and coordinating care between family members.
He has a deep understanding of how to best care for the disease, not only for the person who is ill but also how to self-care. He talks about how to balance eating healthy food, exercising regularly, and finding joy in the difficulty.
His experience caregiving for his dad inspired him to write his latest book, Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness. Click here to read more.
What’s in this episode?
0:00 Better Health
1:55 Meet Richard Liu
2:24 About Richard’s father
4:14 Coordinating caregiver with family
5:14 Difficult Decisions
7:30 Discussion with the person affected about Dementia
8:56 How roles are broken down between family members
12:11 Changing as little as possible
15:03 “Poop and Eating” Phase
17:13 Finding the joy in difficulty
17:54 Belligerent Phase
18:28 Crisis moment
21:47 Nursing homes
23:40 How to decompress
24:55 Eating healthy and exercise
26:30 Balance
28:00 Visual and audio recognition
31:28 Preparing for end of life
33:14 Work life balance and advice
34:11 Find your caregiving community
36:26 Show videos of caregiving
38:00 Look for signs to help
38:55 Stay overnight
What you will learn:
- Richard’s experience with caregiving for his father
- What coordinating caregiving between family members is like
- Examples of difficult decisions that you may come across in caregiving
- Possible life changes for people with Alzheimer’s or Dementia
- Advice from Richard for caregiving for a family member with Alzheimer’s or Dementia
