What You Need to Know About Long Term Care Facilities for Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Updated on October 23, 2020

The merging of medicine and technology has offered vast opportunities to manage and treat several chronic diseases. Incorporating technologically advanced medical devices into hospitals and care centers has aided the pediatric and the geriatric patient pool in a vast manner. With many illnesses affecting the senior population, it is evident that long-term care facilities have emerged as a significant help to the communities.

Why Prefer Long Term Care Facilities?

Long term care facilities provide the older population to lead an active and vibrant lifestyle, without their ailments hindering their daily activities. The most common chronic illnesses affecting seniors include Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. With an increase in age, our body’s brain cells deteriorate, leading to progressive Alzheimer’s disease. A continuous decline in memory can significantly affect the daily lives, so you need to provide the seniors affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia utmost care. 

Often, people ignore the crucial initial symptoms of these diseases, leading to severe memory loss. Such conditions need symptomatic treatment from time to time, coupled with day and night monitoring, and experienced professionals from memory care in Little Rock, AR, can help manage the symptoms before reaching the final stage.

Gadgets and Technology: Tools to Save

Unlike typical long term care centers, specialty centers focusing on memory loss diseases possess cutting-edge technologically advanced products.

  • A tracking device is one of the crucial elements that can track the movement of older adults. The elders have to carry the tracking device so as if there is any fall or problem, the staff will immediately get to know. With memory loss, most seniors have difficult times to track roads they have known for ages. A tracking device with an installed global positional system can come in a small tool or even in wearable condition, such as a smartwatch.
  • Long-term care centers possess sensors installed on stairs and steps to track down the seniors’ movements. Such a move aids them to monitor any miss happenings.
  • Seniors also need to stay healthy and active, which is why long-term care facilities conduct the required amount of exercise. With wearable gadgets, the senior has activity trackers to check their vital signs, including blood pressure, heart rates, temperature, respiration rates, and continuous oxygen saturation. A slight change in such vital signs can warn the staff and get ready to help the senior.
  • A lot of long term care centers also partner with pharmacies and medication distributors. A few of these possess equipment, such as automatic medication dispensers.
  • Moreover, with the personalized applications and platforms, it is easier for loved ones to check on their older people at any time of the day with just a touch. Many long-term care centers provide family members with login details to monitor their seniors’ wellbeing.
  • Owing to the increasing innovation in the healthcare electronic monitoring industry, radio-frequency identification (RFID) is ideal for memory care facilities in Arkansas. You can embed these tags into bracelets, sew them into the patients’ clothing, or even attach it to shoe soles. The antennas and scanners discreetly position at the exit points and danger areas in the facilities. Such a scanner’s operability is connected to software applications, immediately alerting the staff if the senior is beyond the designated green spaces.
  • Long term care centers welcome all types of safety options to take care of their dementia patients. Such centers possess readers and custom software platforms to note the diet and medication patterns. These centers also focus on having innovative features and tools to keep up with their noble cause of facilitating the older adults.   

Caregiving without Professional Aid

Family members usually do not have the technical knowledge to understand their elders’ situations, affecting their wellbeing. The miscommunication can act as a setback to the memories of the elderly population. Many people do not understand the severity of such diseases, which leads to the elderly population facing struggles, such as depression, anxiety, fear, apart from their memory loss conditions.

On average, approximately fifty percent of people ages more than sixty-five need some form of long term care. Also, among them, almost fourteen percent of elders need services for more than five years. Such statistics push the need for professional long term care.

Long term care centers are prepared for unforeseen situations as they have the expertise and can judiciously follow the adequate treatment. However, family members or caregivers at home will not understand what to do in crucial situations without treating dementia and memory loss patients.

With the professional service, the long term care centers provide, the elderly can navigate easily through the formidable gates of diseases, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. The throughout service aids the daily activities and brightens up the last phase of the older adults.   

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.