4 Places Dementia Caregivers Can Turn for Help

0:00Care Blazers, I just got done being a guest on a podcast and they had all kinds of questions about dementia. Two of them I thought were fantastic questions that I wanted to give you the answer to right now. The first question was, where should somebody turn to for help to know what's going on early on after a diagnosis? So in the first 30, 60, 90 days, where should somebody turn? The second question was, after a diagnosis, what is like the first thing somebody should be thinking about to do? So I just want to talk through this with you. I think it could be really helpful. Careblazer, real quick, if you learn better by watching things, then you can hop on over to my YouTube channel where I post these podcasts in video format, sometimes have different visuals to help people learn even better.

0:46You can just type in Careblazers into YouTube and I will pop up. All right, let's get back to today's podcast. There are four places that I thought of to get help in the beginning. Please remember, you do not need the help right now in order to receive the help or at least ask about the help. I think one of the biggest mistakes that we make is waiting until we need something to get something when we can absolutely get help and information right now that can help us even if we don't necessarily need it. So here we go. Four places dementia careblazers can turn to when their loved one is diagnosed with dementia.

1:26Number one, the social worker at your loved one's clinic. If your loved one receives primary care services at a clinic or a hospital, ask the primary care provider, is there a social worker on staff? In my clinical experience, social workers have been the absolute best type of person to figure out what resources are in your area that can help. So that's one place. Number two, your local area agency on aging. So this is particularly if you're in the United States, open up Google, type in local area agency on aging. It will immediately route you to the area agency on aging in your county. There will be a phone number.

2:07Call that phone number, explain a little bit about your situation and ask what resources are available to me. At least you'll get an idea of things maybe you didn't know about in your community, whether that's adult day health care, respite services, meal delivery, whatever that county has to offer, you will learn. Number three, the Alzheimer's Association toll-free helpline number. So there is a 24-7 phone number that you can call. It's a helpline that is put on by the Alzheimer's Association. even if your loved one doesn't necessarily have Alzheimer's disease type dementia, or they might have a different type of dementia, or you're not even sure, they don't have the formal diagnosis.

2:50That is still a phone number you can call. Tell them a little bit about what you're going through. See what resources they have for you. That phone number is 1-800-272-3900. And then the fourth place that you can look for for help ongoing week after week, shameless plug here on the channel, Dementia Care Blazers. I am sharing every week something I think that can be helpful for you. And I have been doing so for the past several years. So if you have a question, a topic, something you want to know about, there is a search feature in YouTube on my channel specifically that you can type in bathing, dressing, family, aggression, delusions, hallucinations, sleep, testing, diagnosis.

3:38You can type in whatever keyword you want on my channel and all my videos I've ever done with that keyword will pop up. So it's just a cool search feature for you to get some information in the meantime. Now, the other question that was interesting was, okay, so let's say my husband got diagnosed with dementia. It's the very next day. Like, what should I do? What should I be thinking of? And here I said, really make sure that you have access and know how to access the financial information, making sure you know how to get passwords, you know where important paperwork is and to consult with an elder law attorney sooner rather than later.

4:19Many elder law attorneys will consult just the first session to see if this is something that they can help you with, if it's really needed in your situation. And that can help set you up and arrange your assets so that if you ever really did need to pay for care, they can structure things to maybe help protect as many of your assets as possible. They can also help with things like the paperwork. So powers of attorney, medical power of attorney, financial power of attorney, things like that. Because at some point, the person with dementia will no longer be able to participate in that kind of planning and decision making.

4:53And if we don't have this paperwork in place before that point, they may never be able to put it into place. And then we end up with a legal mess. So those were my questions or my answers to their questions. And I'll let you guys know when the full podcast comes out so I can share more. I hope this was helpful. I would love to know, Careblazers, let's make this a little bit more. video super helpful for Careblazers around the world. Where would you recommend to go to to get help? Where have you gone to to get help that once your loved one was diagnosed, this service, this place, this organization was really helpful.

5:25Put it in the comments below and that way we can just build a really amazing resource for everybody here looking for more help. That's what I have for you today, Careblazer. I will be back next week as always with a new video. I am sending you so much love. Bye.