{"id":145407,"date":"2026-02-15T21:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=145407"},"modified":"2026-02-15T21:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:48:22","slug":"family-living-focus-caring-for-adults-with-cognitive-and-memory-impairments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/family-living-focus-caring-for-adults-with-cognitive-and-memory-impairments\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Living Focus: Caring for Adults with Cognitive and Memory Impairments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gail Gilman, Family Life Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S. and Professor<\/em>
\nEmeritus, University of Minnesota<\/em><\/p>\n

Caregiving: A Universal Occupation:<\/p>\n

Most people will become caregivers or need one at some point in their lives.
\nA caregiver is anyone who provides basic assistance and care for someone who
\nis frail, disabled, or ill and needs help.\u00a0 Caregivers perform a wide
\nvariety of tasks to assist someone else in his or her daily life, for
\nexample, balancing a checkbook, grocery shopping, assisting with doctor’s
\nappointments, giving medications, or helping someone to eat, take a bath or
\ndress.\u00a0 Many family members and friends do not consider such assistance and
\ncare as “caregiving.”\u00a0 They are just doing what comes naturally to them –
\ntaking care of someone they love.\u00a0 That care may be required for months or
\nyears, and may take an emotional, physical, and financial toll on caregiving
\nfamilies.<\/p>\n

For some people, caregiving occurs gradually over time.\u00a0 For others, it can
\nhappen overnight. Caregivers may be full- or part-time; live with their
\nloved one or provide care from a distance. For the most part, friends,
\nneighbors, and most of all, families, provide the vast majority of care
\nusually without pay.<\/p>\n

Many American families care for an adult with a cognitive (brain)
\nimpairment.\u00a0 Cognitively impaired people have difficulty with one or more of
\nthe basic functions of their brain, such as perception, memory,
\nconcentration, and reasoning skills.\u00a0 Common causes of cognitive impairment
\ninclude Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, stroke, Parkinson’s
\ndisease, brain injury, brain tumor, or HIV-associated dementia.\u00a0 Although
\neach disorder has its own unique features, family members and caregivers
\noften share common problems, situations, and strategies.<\/p>\n

Caregiving and Cognitive Impairment:<\/p>\n

Cognitive and memory impairments can change how a person thinks, acts,
\nand\/or feels.\u00a0 These changes often present special challenges for families
\nand caregivers.\u00a0 An ordinary conversation, for example, can be quite
\nfrustrating when your loved one has difficulty remembering from one moment
\nto the next what has been said.<\/p>\n

Individuals with moderate to severe dementia or another cognitive impairment
\noften require special care, including supervision (sometimes 24 hours a
\nday), specialized communication techniques and management of difficult
\nbehavior.\u00a0 They may need help with activities of daily living (called
\n“ADLs”), such as bathing, eating, transferring from bed to a chair or
\nwheelchair, toileting, and\/or other personal care.<\/p>\n

Challenging Behaviors:<\/p>\n

Individuals with cognitive impairment may experience a range of behavioral
\nproblems that can be frustrating for caregivers.\u00a0 These might include
\ncommunication difficulties, perseveration (fixation on\/repetition of an idea
\nor activity), aggressive or impulsive behaviors, paranoia, lack of
\nmotivation, memory problems, incontinence, poor judgment and wandering.
\nSome people may develop behavioral problems early on, while others go
\nthrough their entire illness with only minor issues. Most cognitively
\nimpaired people fall somewhere in the middle, having good days and bad days
\n(or even good or bad moments).\u00a0 Anticipating that there will be ups and
\ndowns, and maintaining patience, compassion, and a sense of humor will help
\nyou cope more effectively with difficult behavior.\u00a0 It is important to
\nremember that it is the disease, not the person, causing the behavior.<\/p>\n

Helpful suggestions for managing these problems include communication
\ntechniques, such as keeping language simple and asking one question at a
\ntime.\u00a0 Break down tasks and questions.\u00a0 For example, instead of asking,
\n“Would you like to come in and sit down and have a snack?” use simple
\nstatements such as, “Sit down here.” and “Here’s a snack for you.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gail Gilman, Family Life Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S. and Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Caregiving: A Universal Occupation: Most people will become caregivers or need one at some point in their lives. A caregiver is anyone who provides basic assistance and care for someone who is frail, disabled, or ill and needs help.\u00a0 Caregivers perform a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-26 21:46:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145408,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145407\/revisions\/145408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}