Dementia

Three Ways Virtual Reality Is Helping Dementia Patients If you went to the theaters this summer, you may have seen Stephen Spielberg’s latest hit, Ready Player One. That film highlights how virtual reality (VR) is primed to revolutionize how people play video games in the future. Of course, this is not a post about video games. But VR is about more than just entertainment. In fact, it’s already being used to help dementia patients throughout the world. Virtual reality is a multimedia technology designed to immerse a person in a virtual world, often by shutting out real-world distractions using a [...]

Tale of Caution: Liability for Grandpa Still Driving at 93 Taking the keys from an elderly loved one is a position no family member wants to be in. Not only is it awkward, it can often escalate quickly with the elderly driver extremely unwilling to give up driving, a huge symbol of independence. What can happen, though, with liability for Grandpa still driving in his 90s? Mary's father, Donald, is 93 years old. Donald is in good physical shape and can operate a car. His mental health, however, has been deteriorating lately. His doctor recently diagnosed him with dementia and, [...]

The Cost of Dementia When one receives a diagnosis of dementia, the last thing the family usually considers is the cost. Dementia, however, can be extremely costly to a family if there has not been adequate planning done ahead of time with the assistance of an attorney. From Powers of Attorney, to Medi-Cal coverage, and basic Estate Planning, the costs of dementia can impact not only the loved one with the diagnosis, but the entire family as well. There are many stages of dementia and this disease can creep in slowly. Even before a professional diagnosis, there are often warning [...]

Dementia diagnosis does have different stages, but it is important to note that each person will have an individualized experience with the disease. While some may be in one stage for a long time, others may seem to quickly bypass certain stages and move to an advanced stage of the disease. Why is knowing the stages of dementia diagnosis important? This information is vital to planning for your loved one’s future. An individual can go from an early stage and being able to live on their own to being unable to care for themselves or make legal decisions within a [...]

Tale of Caution: Failure to Plan for a Special Needs Child One of the most difficult things an adult child may have to do is step in when they feel their parent is suffering from the impacts of Alzheimer’s or Dementia. While hard, what is even worse is when the child does not step in and waits too long. The following Tale of Caution could happen to anyone. Susan has been noticing that her father, William, who lives alone, has been struggling with his memory for over a year. She had mentioned it to him once before, but it caused [...]

The Dangers of Denial: Dementia  “I believe we’re all in denial about the people we love.” David Geffen spoke those words, and they’re especially true for family members who have a loved one with dementia. Denial is refusing to acknowledge an uncomfortable or unacceptable truth or to admit it into consciousness. We’ve all used denial in one way or another to defend ourselves against a painful truth. The trouble is, denial only works for a while, and it always leads to failure. Denying that a loved one has dementia is a dangerous proposition. Left unchecked, dementia will progress to the [...]