Dementia and Alzheimer's care at home

Memory loss is easier to live with in a familiar room, with a familiar face, on a familiar schedule. Most of my eleven years has been spent with people living with Alzheimer's and other dementias, and with the families trying to hold everything together around them.

The hardest part of dementia is rarely the forgetting. It is the agitation at four in the afternoon, the refusal to bathe, the question asked for the ninth time, the moment someone looks at their own daughter and cannot place her. Those moments are not behaviour problems to be corrected. They are someone trying to make sense of a world that has stopped holding still.

What helps is consistency. The same person arriving at the same time, the same order to the morning, the same cup in the same place. I keep routines rather than impose them, I follow the day the person is actually having rather than the one on the schedule, and I do not argue with a reality that is real to them. Redirection, patience and a calm voice do more than correction ever has.

Staying at home matters more for dementia than for almost any other condition. A move to an unfamiliar building can cost months of orientation that never fully come back. Keeping someone in the house they know, for as long as that is safe and kind, is often the single most protective thing a family can do.

What this looks like

Routine that holds

The same arrival time, the same sequence to the day. Predictability does more for agitation than almost anything else.

Redirection, not correction

Meeting confusion where it is rather than arguing with it — which escalates distress and rarely changes the belief.

Sundowning support

Being present through late-afternoon and evening restlessness, when families are often most worn down and least able to stay patient.

Safe personal care

Bathing, dressing and grooming handled in a way that preserves dignity, for someone who may not understand why it is happening.

Meals and hydration

Cooking familiar food and quietly watching intake, since appetite and thirst cues often fade before anyone notices.

Wandering and household safety

Attention to doors, stairs, the stove and the gaps between them — and telling you plainly when something in the house has stopped being safe.

This is probably for you if…

A diagnosis is recent and nobody has slept properly since
Days are manageable but late afternoons have become impossible
One family member is carrying it all and starting to break
You are weighing a memory care facility and want to know whether home is still workable

Where my scope ends

I am a Certified Nursing Assistant, not a nurse. I do not diagnose, assess cognitive decline clinically, or manage medications. I work alongside your doctor, memory clinic or hospice team, and I tell you what I notice.

Where I provide this care

In-home care across the Sierra foothills. Choose your county for what care looks like locally:

Tuolumne County

Being based in the county means same-week consultations are usually possible, and short visits are practical in a way they are not an hour away.

Calaveras County

Ongoing scheduled care works better than ad-hoc visits across a county this spread out — it is worth planning the week rather than the day.

Amador County

Best suited to longer bookings — full days, overnights and vigil care — rather than short daily visits.

Let's talk it through

The first conversation is free and there's nothing owed for it. Call or text (619) 407-0301 — or ask whatever you're unsure about first.

Call (619) 407-0301