Elder Care: Use the Holidays to Watch for Dementia and Declining Health

Good tips from Jacqueline's elder care blog at Third Age for using the holidays to observe the mental health of senior parents. If your parents are over 65 then there is around a 10% chance one of them will have some form of Alzheimer's disease or dementia and this increases to 50% by age 85.

Here are some of her major cues:

-Watch for things that are misplaced in odd places. It isn’t when your dad loses his keys more often–it is when you find the keys in the microwave or someplace he would have normally never put them.

-Try to get a peek at the checkbook and credit card statements to see if the same bill has been paid several times or not at all, and if it seems unusually messy with errors. Look for unusual charges.

-Notice if there is a lot of mail that hasn’t been tended to, disorganized or unopened.

-Check for personal hygiene.

-See if medications are organized properly or if they seem to be mixed up.

-Observe: mobility, balance, sight, hearing, reflexes, pain, depression, energy.

-Notice if the right words can’t be found more than usual, with wrong words being substituted in sentences, and if handwriting is getting worse and typically smaller.

It is not your role to diagnose your parents condition but instead to document possible red flags that you can discuss with their qualified physician. Pretending everything is okay or chalking warning signs off as "senior moments" won't help either you or your parents.