Dementia and Memory Care

Dementia changes the questions. It is not only about safety and help with daily tasks. It is about how a person experiences a room, a routine, and the people in it.

These guides come from people who taught this material and lived it on the floor. We hold the CADDCT trainer credential and the Certified Dementia Practitioner credential, and we ran memory care communities before we ever advised a family. That background shapes what you will read here. Less theory, more of what actually helps at four in the afternoon when someone is trying to go home to a house they sold in 1998.

Start with the basics if the diagnosis is new. What dementia is, how Alzheimer's disease differs from vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia, and what the stages really mean for day to day care. Then move to the practical set: how to answer a repeated question without arguing, what to do about driving, how to handle bathing when it has become a fight, why late day agitation happens, and how to keep a person engaged without overwhelming them.

We also write about the decision points. When assisted living is still enough and when memory care is safer. What secured memory care actually feels like from the inside, since the word secure scares families more than the reality does. How to tour a memory care community and read the staff, not the lobby. What to do when a parent refuses to leave home and the risk is climbing.

You do not have to hold this alone. The Alzheimer's Association Colorado Chapter runs a 24 hour helpline, and we run a free beginner class and monthly caregiver support groups here in the Denver metro.

For classes, certification, and support groups in one place, visit our dementia hub.