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Since 2009, Insight Memory Care Choices has been providing assisted living placement for people with dementia. Founded by Sandra Wallace, the former executive director of a national assisted living company, Insight Memory Care Choices supports organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association, which recently published a guide to assist people who are traveling with a person with dementia or other related illnesses. Traveling with a person who has Alzheimer’s requires special consideration. Start by involving the person in your planning. Let the person know beforehand about the travel and what might happen on the way, as changes in environment can trigger confusion. Recognize the signs of agitation and anxiety early on, and then develop strategies to reduce them, as they may be necessary during travel. When it comes to travel destinations, familiar locations are ideal, even more so those that will require very few changes to everyday routines. Prioritize destinations accessible by emergency health services or with pharmacies close by. If you will be staying at a hotel, contact the hotel staff early on to make special arrangements as necessary. If staying with family or friends, send them an itinerary of your travel plans, a copy of the person’s daily routine, and other information that will make the stay comfortable. Schedule travel to the time of day when the person with Alzheimer’s is most relaxed, and make sure you have medication, the phone numbers of local hospitals and police departments, a list of the patient’s allergies, family member contacts, and insurance information close at hand. In this way, you'll be ready for most emergencies. If you are traveling by air, choose an airport with special needs reservations like wheelchair assistance and companion care bathrooms. During the journey, always stay with your companion. And finally, have a plan B in case of an extreme emergency.

For the past decade, Insight Memory Care Choices has helped families find appropriate living situations for their aging loved ones. Insight Memory Care Choices offers particular experience in the placement of people with dementia. In the state of California, if an assisted-living facility advertises services for residents with Alzheimer's and other dementia-related conditions, that facility must provide dementia-care training to its direct-care staff. Those assisting residents with daily care activities first receive 40 hours of initial training. During this time, they review topics ranging from resident rights and medication policies and procedures to personal-care techniques and how to recognize the signs of dementia. Care staff must also engage in 20 hours of this training on an annual basis. After finishing their initial training, staff members undergo instruction specific to the care of residents with dementia. This includes techniques for keeping them safe, how to communicate with them, and how to deal with sundowning, a phenomenon in which symptoms worsen for several hours, usually at sunset. In addition, the staff learns about effective therapeutic activities, the behavioral effects of dementia, and the factors that may aggravate its symptoms. This training program is 12 hours in length, the first six hours of which must be completed before a staff member begins working with residents on an independent basis. They must finish the remaining six hours before they have completed four weeks on the job. Thereafter, the staff member must undergo twelve in-service dementia specific training hours per year. These programs offer additional instruction in providing compassionate, empathetic, and dignity-focused care for individuals with dementia. Four hours of annual hospice training is also necessary.

Insight Memory Care Choices helps family members find quality care providers for their elderly loved ones. Insight Memory Care Choices also supports many local and national charities, including the Peninsula Humane Society, which offers some pet care services specifically for those seniors who become incapable of caring for a pet through immobility or death. The Continuing Care Program at the Peninsula Humane Society offers seniors peace of mind regarding the care of their pets if they should pass away first. If a member dies during the lifetime of a pet, the Humane Society offers multiple solutions. Members can designate a future caretaker, and the Humane Society will ensure that the pet reaches its new home safe and sound. The Humane Society can also take care of the animal while looking for a new home, based on criteria set by the decedent. The Humane Society provides the Continuing Care Program free of charge to any members. To maintain a membership, one must make a yearly donation of any amount. Those who do not maintain a membership can still surrender their pets through the standard channels, and the Humane Society accepts all animals, regardless of age, breed, or size.

Insight Memory Care Choices, based in the Bay Area, gives loved ones peace of mind as they seek assisted living arrangements for family members with dementia and other degenerative diseases. Insight Memory Care Choices encourages families to look carefully at any assisted living community before making a commitment. While questions about practical elements of care, such as bathing, feeding and medicine, are important, those looking into an assisted living community for their loved ones should also take the time to consider other factors when touring any facility. Cleanliness and friendliness, for example, can indicate quality or problems. When touring, questions about the laundry procedure, maintenance, and housekeeping schedules can indicate the facility's level of commitment to quality in caring for its residents. If there are odors throughout the building, instead of in one isolated area, that may suggest systemic problems. Watching staff interact with current residents can also help, as friendly, attentive staff tend to do a better job of engaging with the residents. Getting a sense of the residential life should also be a priority. Visiting during a community event can help visitors gauge the overall community resident mix. An individual tour can highlight staff interactions with residents, the community's commitment to quality, as well as make it clearer as to whether a loved one would enjoy the social atmosphere. Similarly, an assessment of the outdoor areas can provide insight into safety and security of the assisted living facility.

Insight Memory Care Choices has helped families find the ideal assisted living communities for their loved ones for nearly a decade. Dementia and related conditions like Alzheimer's can present differently in different people, and Insight Memory Care Choices works hard to make sure the community found is the right one for those specific needs. While symptoms like forgetfulness and loss of objects are common to many forms of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, other more subtle effects often get overlooked. Whether trying to make care decisions for a loved one or to get a diagnosis early, make sure not to ignore these symptoms. Confusion regarding times, dates, and places often presents in dementia and Alzheimer's. This can include day and night reversal, not knowing what daylight or darkness represents. Another is time dilation, in which minutes seem like hours or days, as well as simple confusion, in which the current season or date is forgotten. Language use can change as well. Afflicted individuals may cut conversations short, or struggle to find the correct words. They may call one noun by the name of another, refer to familiar things with unfamiliar names or words, and begin inventing new words and events, filling in the gaps from their brain. Multilingual individuals usually lose command of languages other than their native tongue as the disease progresses. It's important for families and caregivers to keep their communication very simple to help the person with memory loss understand. If they need to repeat, use the same wording to reduce confusion. Over time, those with dementia can develop difficulties with spatial and visual reasoning. This can include reading, depth perception, and the ability to distinguish objects placed atop or adjacent to each other, among other issues. In the later stages of the disease, people will start shuffling their feet when they walk because they do not want to lose contact with the floor.

Established in 2009, Insight Memory Care Choices is led by Sandra Wallace, an experienced assisted living administrator and memory care specialist in California. In her leadership role with Insight Memory Care Choices, Ms. Wallace provides individuals and families throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area with support as they navigate the complexities of selecting an assisted living community. Choosing an assisted living community for a loved one, particularly an individual living with dementia or Alzheimer’s, can be a difficult, overwhelming, and confusing task. Prior to reviewing potential communities, families should first familiarize themselves with the basic care and terminology differences of skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities. For example, some families may be in need of a skilled nursing facility (SNF), a facility staffed by licensed medical professionals. People go into a SNF to receive medical treatment, and in most cases, then return home. Because a SNF is considered a medical facility, Medicare will usually cover the cost of treatment in one of these facilities. However, long term stays are either private pay or Medi-Cal if one is low income and financially qualified. The social model of an assisted living community is considered a more home like setting with people usually having their own private apartment. It is not considered a medical facility. Individuals are considered residents, and receive the needed hands on assistance with the basic activities of daily living. Many larger communities have at least one nurse on staff, but it is not a licensing requirement. Similarly, an assisted living community may accept residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s, but if the community does not advertise that they provide this specific care, it is under no obligation to train staff in memory care since it never presented itself as a dementia community. Without proper memory care specific training, the staff may actually increase the agitation and behaviors of their residents with a dementia diagnosis. To learn more about the basics of choosing an assisted living community, please visit www.insightmemorycarechoices.com.

At Insight Memory Care Choices, assisted living professional Sandra Wallace helps families to find communities for loved ones with memory impairment. Insight Memory Care Choices assists these families in understanding the differences between available levels of care. If an older adult needs assistance in navigating the tasks of day to day life, it is important for his or her family to understand the types of care facilities that are available. Assisted living, also known as a “social model” of care, offers help with basic daily care tasks including dressing, bathing, and medication management, but most do not provide nursing care. In these communities, residents live in private apartment-style units and share use of common spaces. The resident is still able to choose what he or she wants to do during each day. Skilled nursing facilities, also known as a “medical model” of care, are more appropriate for elders who require specialized care or 24-hour nursing. There may be occupational, speech, and physical therapists on staff and rehabilitation programs on-site. An activity program is also available for residents who feel up to participating. Some senior care communities offer dedicated memory care. By state licensing law, facilities that advertise this level of care are required to train their staff in caring for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other conditions that cause memory impairment. Dedicated memory care communities also have delayed egress exits with alarms to prevent wandering, which is common for many residents.

Insight Memory Care Choices is a senior services organization that was founded in 2009 by Sandra Wallace, a former executive director of a national assisted living provider. Insight Memory Care Choices helps families to choose the best assisted living community for their loved ones. She specializes in all types of assisted living placement, specializing in dementia. Families have a great deal of information to absorb when making decisions related to the long term care of a loved one. In addition to cost, service offerings, and social needs, families must also understand what care their loved one needs now and might also need down the road. The starting point is to determine if their loved one needs a social model or medical model of care. Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), which are staffed by licensed medical professionals, employ the medical model of care. They help patients recover from injuries and illnesses so they can return home. Also known as nursing homes, SNFs can also provide custodial care for patients needing long term care. However, these facilities only accept public or private insurance options for short term stays or they require private pay or Medi-Cal for long term custodial care. Alternatively, assisted living settings are the social model of long term care. These communities feature a home-style setting and provide non-medical care support with the activities of daily living. Assisted living facilities can range in size from small 6 bed homes to much larger communities of over 100 residents. Homes of 16 or more residents require awake care staff around the clock. There is a range of care services provided by communities, so it's important to ask specific questions about what care services can be provided for your loved one needs. However, assisted living facilities only accept private pay options, including Long Tern Care insurance.

Led by experienced assisted living administrator Sandra Wallace, Insight Memory Care Choices is an assisted living placement resource for seniors and their families. In addition to providing knowledgeable support as families assess potential communities and, ultimately, move their senior into a new home, Insight Memory Care Choices offers a wealth of basic information to help her clients understand assisted living terminology. There are several basic terms families should familiarize themselves with while vetting potential senior communities. Assisted Living is considered the "social model" of senior living by the California Department of Social Services. Care assistance is provided by trained, non medical caregivers. People living here are called residents. Skilled nursing facilities, meanwhile, are run by licensed medical professionals. Most people go into a Nursing Home to recuperate from surgery or illness and then return home. People are referred to as patients by the staff. Usually Medicare or Medi-Cal covers most of these expenses for seniors. If a low income senior needs long term care, or "custodial care", Medi-Cal is the acceptable form of payment, not Medicare. Within Assisted Living, learning about community size, for example, is of vital importance. Community size dictates a number of on-site policies and staffing regulations. For instance, communities with fewer than 16 residents are not required to have an awake staff overnight, a fact that may immediately render a community inappropriate for some families. Families should also learn about the difference between secured and locked communities, particularly in regards to seniors with dementia. Secured communities use delayed egress or other alarm systems to alert staff to unsafe resident wandering or exit seeking behaviors. The term “locked communities” is reserved for psychiatric facilities populated by patients who have been conserved by the Court and need mental health care support. For more basic Assisted Living community-related information and terms, please visit www.insightmemorycarechoices.com.

Led by Sandra Wallace, California-based Insight Memory Care Choices offers solutions for vetting and selecting assisted living communities for loved ones. Committed to finding the right living situation for individual clients, Insight Memory Care Choices emphasizes the importance of communities that offer a balance of social interaction and physical activity. Those experiencing the initial stages of memory loss often isolate themselves, as they want to hide the confusion that they feel and avoid drawing attention to themselves. A recent AARP Bulletin article draws attention to the importance of socialization in maintaining optimal mental health. An example given in the article describes 86-year-old Stella, who had once enjoyed an active social life but eventually stopped going to church, wearing makeup, and remembering to do tasks such as laundry. After moving to a senior residence in Reno, Stella went from having two social interactions a week to more than 200 and began exercising regularly, playing bridge, and wearing jewelry and makeup again. This example parallels a study of California women published in the American Journal of Public Health that found that older women with robust social networks exhibited less or delayed cognitive impairment and witnessed a reduced risk of dementia. With the right assisted living community in place, aging individuals are more likely to maintain good mental health and an overall sense of well-being and normal daily functioning.

San Francisco-based Insight Memory Care Choices provides families with valuable tools to help them deal with caring for family members experiencing dementia or memory loss. In addition to the company’s direct work with clients, Insight Memory Care Choices has often given presentations on issues related to dementia to the Alzheimer’s Association. In a recent news release, the Alzheimer’s Association officially lent its public support to new legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would increase training standards for personnel working in pain-management and other end-of-life medical areas. A bipartisan group of representatives recently introduced the legislation, dubbed the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, which also follows care guidelines set forth by the Council on Alzheimer’s Care, Research, and Services. These areas of care are especially germane to patients suffering from the later stages of dementia, as effective palliative care can reduce the chance that these patients will pass away in a hospital setting versus a more comfortable, familiar place. They also are less likely to be hospitalized with other conditions or need emergency care when they receive appropriate palliative care, making this legislation doubly important, not just for patient care, but for the reduction of medical costs.

At Insight Memory Care Choices, families receive professional support in finding the right assisted-living placement for loved ones. Insight Memory Care Choices focuses on the range of specialized support that clients with dementia require. It's a personal journey and individual needs can vary based upon their diagnosis. As the disease takes away a person's executive capacity to think, remember, and express themselves to be understood by others, dementia can diminish that person’s self-esteem and dignity. Part of the caregiver's role is to preserve this dignity by helping the resident to feel competent and useful. This often takes the form of allowing the individual to assist in everyday tasks, such as clearing the table, folding the laundry or sorting objects. Individuals with dementia live in the moment, and thus these simple tasks can be an enjoyable shared experience. Caregivers and families alike should take the time to move slowly through a task and focus on the pleasure of the action, rather than the accuracy of the outcome. It is easier to do this if the task itself is simple and straightforward and if all instructions are presented in a straightforward manner, usually one step at a time. Because many people with dementia eventually lose their vocabulary, these conversations should be simple in language but respectful in tone. It is important to treat these individuals as adults and to avoid using a childlike tone. If someone with dementia still doesn't understand what you said, yelling won't improve their comprehension. Communication techniques change as the disease progresses. Similarly, caregivers must preserve the person's sense of worth and provide choices whenever possible, such as which shirt they wear today...the blue one or the tan one? Keep it simple. Confusion causes anxiety. Finally, each person with dementia must feel loved and be able to show love in return. This may be as simple as sharing a smile or a gentle touch. Loved ones should be encouraged to show affection and speak lovingly whenever possible and to receive the person’s affection in whatever way he or she is able to give it.

Drawing on the experience of Sandra Wallace in the field of Assisted Living, Insight Memory Care Choices provides decision-making support for those seeking residential care for their loved ones. Insight Memory Care Choices helps families to evaluate facilities, assess staff competencies, and determine the care needs of potential clients. Assisted Living communities welcome individuals who can no longer remain safely in their own homes. The level of care is dependent upon the needs of the individual. Assisted Living is appropriate for those elders who want more socialization, need better nutrition and usually need some level of assistance with activities of daily living, such as dressing and taking medications. Within the world of Assisted Living, dedicated Memory Care is usually a separate part of the community. Assisted Living is considered the "social model" of senior care. Skilled Nursing Homes, by contrast, exist to serve those who need professional medical services throughout the day. The majority (about 70%) of these patients are rehabbing from surgery or illness and will return home when recovered. Those that do not return home are receiving a very high level of care that cannot be maintained in an Assisted Living environment, per state regulations in Title XXII. Also, a number of low income patients live in nursing homes under custodial care. Skilled Nursing is considered the "medical model" of senior care. Nursing homes do not have dedicated resources for individuals with dementia. Assisted Living facilities with dedicated dementia programs are required to train their entire staff in dementia care. Families should take care to ask all potential facilities about the ways in which they keep residents safe, engaged and comfortable.

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