Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of Dementia often make performing activities of daily living or ADLs difficult. ADLs are routine activities people do every day without assistance. There are five basic ADL categories:
1. Personal hygiene—bathing, grooming, nail care and oral care
2. Dressing—the ability to make appropriate clothing decisions and physically dress/undress oneself
3. Eating—the ability to feed oneself, though not necessarily the capability to prepare food
4. Maintaining continence—both the mental and physical capacity to use a restroom, including the ability to get on and off the toilet and cleaning oneself
Transferring/Mobility—moving oneself from seated to standing, getting in and out of bed, and the ability to walk independently from one location to another
Prior to admission at Vista Cove, residents are assessed to determine their level of functioning. Measuring the resident’s inability to perform the ADLs is important not just in determining the level of assistance required, but as a metric for a variety of services and programs related to their care.
Since Dementia is a progressive condition, the ability to perform ADLs usually declines over time. As such, sequencing, planning and organizing a multiple-step activity (such as getting dressed) can be very difficult. In addition, the person may forget to do a task or how to perform it. Poor decision-making skills can also impact ADLs and the resident’s inability to focus on completing an activity such as a taking a shower might be challenging.
Sometimes, dementia can affect the resident’s personality and behavior so that they resist assistance with ADLs. Because the resident doesn’t understand that she needs assistance, she might become fearful or angry. And lastly, visual-spatial changes can make completing ADLs difficult.
Vista Cove Caregivers are trained to help residents with their ADLs, no matter the stage of the disease they are in. Every effort is made to ensure residents maintain independence as much as they are able and to assist with ADLs, when needed.
