{"id":11897,"date":"2020-07-23T17:14:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T17:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11897"},"modified":"2020-07-23T17:14:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T17:14:36","slug":"alzheimers-caregivers-struggle-through-unprecedented-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11897","title":{"rendered":"Alzheimer\u2019s caregivers struggle through unprecedented times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dementia is not known to increases risk for COVID-19, but dementia-related behaviors, increased age and common health conditions that often accompany dementia may increase the risk. <\/em><\/strong>Photo: alz.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By ROZ BROWN
<\/strong>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas — Caregivers for people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease are experiencing unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 400,000 Texans are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, some living in memory-care facilities but many more looked after by family or other unpaid caregivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey Bird, executive director of the Fort Worth-based No arerth Central Texas chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association<\/a>, said the rules governing long-term care facilities or nursing homes have been hard on families — especially those who only able to see a spouse or parent through a glass partition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Later stages of Alzheimer’s, where the patient may not recognize someone, just the sound of somebody’s voice or a familiar touch is comforting,” he said. “And then, to be without that is troublesome.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird said more than 1 million Texans are looking after family members afflicted by Alzheimer’s – many of whom also juggle their own households and jobs. Texas ranks fourth in the United States for its number of Alzheimer’s cases and second in Alzheimer’s deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people with Alzheimer’s are age 50 and older, putting them in a high-risk category for COVID-19. In addition, Alzheimer’s and dementia suppress the immune system, making it critical that caregivers wear masks. If you know a caregiver of someone with Alzheimer’s, Bird said, they probably need extra support right now — even if it can only be by phone or email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you’re home isolated with someone with Alzheimer’s and you’re the caregiver, you’re in advanced age, it’s your spouse — and imagine not having the support that can come to your home, or you be able to go out and get some respite away from the situation,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alzheimer’s Association offers a helpline — open 24 hours, seven day a week, at 800-272-3900 — where specialists and clinicians offer confidential support and information to people living with the disease, caregivers, families and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information is online at alz.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas — Caregivers for people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease are experiencing unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 400,000 Texans are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, some living in memory-care facilities but many more looked after by family or other unpaid caregivers. Jeffrey Bird, executive director of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11898,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897\/revisions\/11898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}