Family and professional caregivers are key to ensuring that people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia live safely, comfortably and with dignity. Given the nation’s rapidly aging population, more people in the coming years will develop Alzheimer’s and dementia with the memory loss, agitation, behavior changes and other symptoms that come with them. Recent UCLA suggests that the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s will more than double to about 15 million by 2060.
Dementia also has a profound effect on caregivers, often family members whose lives are disrupted and who are challenged on how to best to care for their loved ones. Most caregivers do not receive education and training about how to provide competent and compassionate care.
To address this need, the has developed a series of to help caregivers understand how to care for persons with dementia. The videos, in which actors portray dementia patients and their caregivers, cover a range of issues and provide practical tools and techniques for managing challenging issues that caregivers will face.
“While the UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care program has served thousands of patients and caregivers living in Southern California, we realize that there are many more that we need to reach,” said Dr. Zaldy Tan, the program’s medical director. “We hope that this video series will empower not only patients and caregivers enrolled in our program, but also those beyond our reach in other parts of California and the U.S.”
The program has produced 18 training videos on the following topics:
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Videos covering common challenges are:
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The program also offers ranging from “What is dementia?” to protecting loved ones who have dementia from falling prey to scammers.
