Are you sure you want to exit? Your progress will be lost.
Who are you caring for?
Which best describes their mobility?
How well are they maintaining their hygiene?
How are they managing their medications?
Does their living environment pose any safety concerns?
Fall risks, spoiled food, or other threats to wellbeing
Are they experiencing any memory loss?
Which best describes your loved one's social life?
Acknowledgment of Disclosures and Authorization
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
✔
I acknowledge and authorize
✔
I consent to the collection of my consumer health data.*
✔
I consent to the sharing of my consumer health data with qualified home care agencies.*
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
Remember, this assessment is not a substitute for professional advice.
Share a few details and we will match you to trusted home care in your area:
Mom has been on Namenda for about 2 months, she seems much more confused and is easily agitated. She has been on Aricept with no negative effect. Since the Namenda she's been declining almost daily.
I've heard so many negative experiences that, once my mom got to the point that the Aricept was no longer working on its own, I made the decision to remove her from the now-useless Aricept without even trying the Namenda. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's is as terminal an illness as cancer. Even if the afflicted person has no other deadly medical issues, the degeneration of the brain *will* eventually kill them. I watched how distressed my mother is/was during those moments when she realizes she's not quite "right", but doesn't know what "right" is. I've lived through her soul-crushing anxiety & the genuine tears she has shed for either a life that never really existed (only in her head) or for friends, neighbors & family who my "real" mom knew had passed but this "new" mom thinks are still alive. I do what I can to keep her physically comfortable & cared for & I give whatever meds that I can to reduce her symptoms (anxiety, tearfulness, etc), but I refuse to give meds like Aricept & Namenda that CANNOT cure the dementia but CAN prolong the amount of time that she is suffering. Totally my opinion & I'm sure there are others here who would disagree. My philosophy, though, is that quality of her life needs to take precedence over the quantity of her life.
Hi tallpetsitter; My one thought would be that everyone seems to react differently to these meds. We put my mom on Aricept (early stages of dementia) and she was more confused, worse gait/balance, fell, to the ER, found her sodium to be 118 (normal 135-145) and she spent several weeks in rehab. My point, you know her better than anyone. Can you get her in to see her MD? Could it be a UTI? Those things always seem to set our seniors into a tailspin. What about her sodium level or other metabolic issues? It is like being a medical detective. Good luck and God bless. ntsujimura
For us it was dosage. 10 mg twice a day was disastrous. 10 mg once a day was still not good. 5 mg. once a day with the evening meal has worked well. No agitation or hallucinations. Sleeping through the nightwithout calling out for help. Good! That said, confusion, memory loss, and depth perception challenges are ongoing, but manageable when the agitation and hallucinations are removed from the picture. Ask your doctor about trying lower doses rather than higher if you have not tried that yet.
Quailmom....that's exactly why I chose not to put my Mom on anything further after the Aricept stopped working. Being aware of those losses has caused my mom a lot of anxiety and sadness and that, in turn, has reduced the quality of her life. I'd rather see her severely decline quickly into a state that she is unaware of those losses than to stay longer in the anxiety & tears that her loss awareness has caused.
Namenda was no good for 83 year old MCI husband. He was on 10 M of Aricept and that seemed to work. When they added Namenda, his gait, walking and balance were negatively affected almost immediately. Didn't stick around to see what else would be affected. Physician took him off this Medication immediately.
Absolutely. My mom only took 1 month and we noticed her decline. As well she is taking Aricept and the memory clinic thought she is now ready to go tandem. She started out with the 7, 14, 21 and finally 28mg dose and that's when all hell broke loose. Mom became more withdrawn, less engaging, balance became progressively worse and her incontinence was out of control. She no longer had the "feeling" to go. We have since taken her off and I am glad to say she is back to her "Normal." Good luck.
My husband had hallucinations when on Namenda - saw strangers in the corner or cats on the book shelves. This made him quite agitated so I took him off the medication.
My husband was very confused when we got his dose up to 10 mg twice a day. The Doctor thinks it helps support cognition and really wanted to keep him on the drug [I wanted to quit]. We are now doing 5 mg. twice per day. It seems to me that it makes the poor guy more aware of his losses but no more capable in daily functioning. At least the generic is much cheaper and it doesn't seem to cause any physical issues. I am still very skeptical of it's efficacy in this case.
Same thing happened with my husband. I took him off the Namenda for a week, and he improved. Then I put him back on it, and within the week, again, he became more confused. So I took it away from him forever! We need to remember that all these medications the pharmaceutical fat cats keep pushing on us are always to be questioned.
I urge you to read "The Myth of Alzheimer's" by an American neurologist (his name escapes me now, but you can google the title of the book). In "the good old days," it was called "hardening of the arteries." Then along came a German doctor who slapped a label to it. His name was Dr. Alzheimer. The "cure," which will never come to be is a huge money-making venture for the pharmaceuticals and the doctors who are in bed with them.
Of course more and more of the elderly have Alzheimer's ("hardening of the arteries"). We are all living much, much longer so "hardening of the arteries" is on the "increase."
I hope you will read this book. And if you are already contributing your hard-earned dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to find a "cure" for Alzheimer's, take a deep breath and stop doing it.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
My one thought would be that everyone seems to react differently to these meds. We put my mom on Aricept (early stages of dementia) and she was more confused, worse gait/balance, fell, to the ER, found her sodium to be 118 (normal 135-145) and she spent several weeks in rehab. My point, you know her better than anyone. Can you get her in to see her MD? Could it be a UTI? Those things always seem to set our seniors into a tailspin. What about her sodium level or other metabolic issues? It is like being a medical detective. Good luck and God bless. ntsujimura
I urge you to read "The Myth of Alzheimer's" by an American neurologist (his name escapes me now, but you can google the title of the book). In "the good old days," it was called "hardening of the arteries." Then along came a German doctor who slapped a label to it. His name was Dr. Alzheimer. The "cure," which will never come to be is a huge money-making venture for the pharmaceuticals and the doctors who are in bed with them.
Of course more and more of the elderly have Alzheimer's ("hardening of the arteries"). We are all living much, much longer so "hardening of the arteries" is on the "increase."
I hope you will read this book. And if you are already contributing your hard-earned dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to find a "cure" for Alzheimer's, take a deep breath and stop doing it.
See All Answers