Dementia Support

While the effects of dementia can be difficult and frightening for the patient, it can also be very challenging for family members who aren’t sure where to turn for dementia support. Watching a loved one begin to struggle with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating is hard. Family members may also find it difficult to interact in meaningful ways with their loved one as his or her memory and other skills decline.

Hope Hospice is here to help anyone in our community who needs it, even if the patient is not on our hospice service. Our Living With Dementia program educates family caregivers and medical professionals about dementia and its varied symptoms, and how to provide the best care to persons living with the condition.

Support for Family Caregivers

Most family members who care for a loved one living with dementia find themselves unexpectedly in that role. It is quite common to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and unsure about how to handle your loved one’s changing needs. Hope’s Living With Dementia program can help.

Dementia-Care Classes

Hope Hospice designed a series of free educational seminars tailored to family members caring for a loved one with a life-limiting illness or chronic disabling condition. The Family Caregiver Education Series includes several classes on dementia-related topics to help family members understand changes they will likely observe in their loved one and how to adjust care techniques to improve the patient’s quality of life and well-being.  Classes are available to the public in our service area at no charge. The content is intended for family care partners, not professional caregivers.

• Dementia Basics
  Since dementia dramatically changes how individuals think, perceive, communicate, and behave, caring for a loved one with dementia presents unique challenges. This class explores the nature and progression of dementia and the various diseases and conditions that can produce its symptoms.
• Behaviors as Communication
  As the conditions that cause dementia progress, communication becomes challenged and the person living with dementia increasingly uses behaviors to express needs. This class helps family caregivers gain an understanding of how to assess, interpret, and respond to dementia-related behaviors in a manner that can improve communication and promote meaningful connections.
• Managing Daily Care
  With the goal of enhancing the overall well-being of all involved, this class presents strategies for planning daily activities such as dressing, dining, personal hygiene, and exercising, as well as social and leisure activities.
• Dementia Versus Normal Aging
  Have you ever worried whether some of the memory challenges you or a loved one are experiencing are “normal?”  As we age our brains and our bodies undergo changes.  We may experience instances where we process information more slowly, or we may have trouble recalling names or dates; these can be examples of typical age-related changes. This class looks at differences between these simple signs of aging versus others that might indicate a doctor’s evaluation is needed.
• A New Dementia Diagnosis—Now What?
  Hearing a doctor confirm that the memory issues you (or a loved one) have been experiencing are, in fact, early symptoms of dementia would understandably be cause for concern.  While it may only be natural to think about the worst-case scenario, receiving a dementia diagnosis early on is actually a good thing—it gives you and your family more time to plan for the challenges that lie ahead. This class offers resources and strategies to help families prepare for the inevitable changes that a dementia diagnosis will bring.

There are two ways to participate in these classes:

1. Attend a free webinar. The dementia topics above are worked into the schedule of our Family Caregiver Education Series, which resets each January. Click here to view the upcoming schedule of live webinars, or here to view recordings of any program that you missed. The benefit of attending the live webinar is you get the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters.
2. Host a group presentation! Contact our Outreach Team to schedule one of these presentations for your senior residential community, church, or other group. Please email your request or call Gia Barsell at (925) 829-8770 on weekdays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Click here to download a printable flyer.

Support Groups

Do you care for a loved one who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease or a related dementia? Hope Hospice is here to support you by facilitating a conversation group for those who care for a family member living with dementia.

In addition to meeting others with a shared experience, you will learn more about how dementia affects the brain and body and some ways that you can adjust your care tactics to improve the quality of life for your loved one. Hope’s dementia specialists facilitate support groups by guiding conversation about our shared experiences in caring for a loved one living with dementia, as well as providing dementia related education.

Groups meet twice per month for five months, a total of 10 meetings. At this time, all meetings are held online via Zoom. Hope’s support groups are open to the public in our service area; it’s not required to have a family member on our hospice service. There is no cost to participate, but advance reservations are required. Please email your request or call Gia Barsell at (925) 829-8770 on weekdays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Click here to download a printable flyer.

Respite Care Program

Hope Hospice offers the Family Caregiver Respite Program to help local low- and middle-income families care for a loved one living with dementia. This program provides award recipients with 16 hours of complimentary in-home care from a participating agency. It’s not required that the patient be on our hospice service.

Click here to learn more.

Support for Medical Professionals

Oftentimes, the family physician is the person who delivers the unfortunate diagnosis of dementia. Your patient and their loved ones look to you to help them process the news and to know what to do next. But general practice doctors may not have the expertise or resources that families need at this vulnerable time. Hope Hospice is here to help. You may refer your patient to our Living With Dementia program to help them navigate this journey. Our classes and support groups are free to the local public, even if their loved on is not on our hospice service.

Hope also offers in-service training to facility staff who regularly engage with patients living with dementia.