Estimating The Rise in Dementia and Future Care for Loved Ones

If you are the caregiver for an aging loved one, you have likely experienced a moment that made you wonder if your loved one might be in the early stages of Dementia or Alzheimer’s. It could be something small like they consistently forget the time and place of a well-known event or begin to forget proper mealtimes.

Luckily, there are trained professionals that are out there that can help you diagnose a loved one and let you know what proper care they need. It could just be aging and a slight loss in memory. Buty for those that are diagnosed and needing memory care, you can be experiencing a difficult reality for your loved one. But you are definitely not alone in that experience.

A recent study has estimated an exponential increase in Dementia cases that will bring the total number of people suffering from dementia to 153 million by 2050. If you combine that statistic with the current World Health Organization stat that has Dementia listed as the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases, there could be some challenges heading our way in the future.

All these facts lead to questions around memory care and how it may change in Texas over the coming years. We have already started to see more care and science put into the thought around the builds of the actual memory care facilities. Utilizing color coding or large artwork to help residents recognize what part of the facility they might be in. There has also been a recent push to incorporate nature into the facility as memory care residents seem to respond well to it. Areas like court yards can often provide a break from the “always on” environment that can often overwhelm memory care residents.

So what direction is memory care going to go in over the next 20 years? Nobody knows the future but there are new trends, studies, and discoveries that will help guide those decisions. A few ways that memory care might change are:

• One model does not fit all: While there are facilities that differ in their care and actual facility builds, the differences can often seem small or insignificant. Many believe that the future of memory care will be more customized care options based on the stage of dementia or Alzheimer’s that a loved one is currently in.
• Treating the mental health challenges that many memory care patients deal with: Many facilities often use physical care as a measurement of success for their residents (i.e., avoiding injuries in their facility). But with many identifying the psychological challenges that memory care residents deal with, has many believing that mental health will be a bigger focus in treatment.
• The workforce specialized in memory care will increase dramatically: As the senior care landscape continues to shift and change more heavily to memory care, many believe that the workforce will change with it. We might see an increase in care certifications, degrees, and more directly associated with memory care.

The idea of seeing such a large increase in the number residents needing memory care facilities is overwhelming, it is good to know that the care is advancing with that increased demand.