The elderly population is on the rise here in the United States, thanks to Baby Boomers who are more and more frequently reaching the age of 65. The data that has been gathered on the subject more than backs up this claim. This data shows quite clearly that the elderly population is on the rise and will only continue to grow dramatically in the years that are to come. And this elderly population will have a considerable number of needs that develop in the coming years, the needs that so many people grow to need in their last years of life, at some point after the age of 65. In fact, very nearly three quarters of all people will actually need long term care at some point in their lives, typically at the end of them.
And this is something that many people fear. After all, the need for long term care means the loss of independence, something that many people value really above all else. It means a great deal of change, often in the form of moving out of their homes and even away from their communities. But most of all, people really fear becoming a burden to the family members who must care for them when they become infirm. In fact, more than half of all people mark this as their top fear above all else when it comes to their eventual need for any kind of long term care.
And this fear is not invalid and is in fact rooted in the truth in many cases. When family members become caretakers, a number of problems can ensue. For instance, these caretakers are not trained for such a role, and will instead provide less than stellar care as a result. In addition to this, many people who fall into such a long term caretaker role find themselves immensely drained and burnt out, as they cannot set aside the rest of their lives and often still must hold their regular jobs and maintain family life, at least to some extent.
Fortunately, there are more and more assisted living facilities popping up all throughout the country and even throughout the world as a whole. In many cases, memory care facilities in particular will be necessary, as these memory care facilities specialize in issues like dementia. And unfortunately, as anyone working in the field of memory care will likely be well aware of, dementia is all too common among the elderly community. As a matter of fact, there are up to 100 different kinds of dementia that are diagnosed in the United States today.
Of all the kinds of dementia that are out there, it is Alzheimer’s disease that is by and large the most commonly diagnosed. As a matter of fact, there are more than five million people in the United States alone who have been diagnosed with this disease. This means that Alzheimer’s disease actually accounts for more than three quarters of all forms of dementia that are diagnosed in the United States alone. And more and more will likely be diagnosed in the years that are ahead as well. Fortunately, memory care centers of all kinds can help patients to cope with such a diagnosis and with the disease as it progresses. Memory care plans can ensure that the patient in question is more and more supported as time passes on, something that will likely become a necessity sooner rather than later.
At the end of the day, it can certainly be hard to move into a memory care facility or other such nursing home or nursing facility. For a great many people, this is something that is hard to come to terms with, so hard that they put it off for a considerable deal of time. But moving to a memory care facility is something that can help far more than it harms. As a matter of fact, the round the clock care that most memory care homes provide is something that can keep patients safe and living comfortably for longer periods of time than ever.