Experts share ways to protect loved ones with dementia

JACKSON, Tenn. — Statistics show that more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease.

“One of the biggest things with Alzheimer’s and dementia is a lot of people think they are the same thing,” home care consultant Amanda Barlow said.

According to health experts, dementia includes conditions such as memory loss, disorientation with time and place and personality changes, among others.

“Dementia would be this umbrella effect. The umbrella would be about 120 different types of dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease is the leading form,” Barlow said.

Barlow said there are precautions family members can employ around the home.

“You can put a black rug in front of an exit doorway and that kind of looks like a hole, so they won’t cross that threshold,” Barlow said.

There is also a handful of gadgets on the market that can help with locating your loved one. There are numerous tracking devices, door alarms, web cameras and GPS tracking insoles.

“Wandering is something that can kind of be prevented,” Barlow said. “We can put alarms on our doors, and we can make sure that we are watching them at all times, but you can’t do that either.”

Barlow says some of the main things they encourage law enforcement to check when someone goes missing are barns and culverts.

“They don’t normally wander past two or three miles past their home because they get tired and sit down and rest or they turn around,” Barlow said. “They may have went to go check the mail and they turn around and don’t recognize their home anymore.”

Barlow also says family members should have the clothes of their loved ones identified with a phone number or have some form of identification with numbers on them just in case they get lost.