Caring for someone with dementia can be both rewarding and challenging. As the condition progresses, caregivers often face new obstacles in communication, daily routines, and emotional well-being. This page provides resources to help caregivers navigate these challenges, promote independence, and enhance the quality of life for individuals living with dementia—whether at home or in a community-based setting.

Resources

Caregiver’s Guide to Understanding Dementia Behaviors. Family Caregiver Alliance. Available at https://www.caregiver.org/resource/caregivers-guide-understanding-dementia-behaviors/.

  • This guide offers practical strategies to help caregivers manage common dementia-related behaviors with patience, empathy, and clear communication. It emphasizes adapting to the person’s needs rather than trying to change their behavior.

Communication and Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s Association. Available at https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/daily-care/communications.

  • This article from the Alzheimer’s Association explains how Alzheimer’s disease progressively impairs communication abilities and emphasizes the importance of adapting caregiver communication strategies at each stage. It provides practical, stage-specific tips to support understanding, connection, and dignity for individuals living with dementia.

Dementia care navigation: Building toward a common definition, key principles, and outcomes. (2023). Kallmyer, B. A., Bass, D., Baumgart, M., et al. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 9, e12408. Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12408.

  • This article provides information on dementia care navigation and outlines key principles and outcomes from various U.S. programs, emphasizing their positive impact on both persons living with dementia and their caregivers. These programs have led to improved care system outcomes, including reduced hospital visits and enhanced well-being, and decreased caregiver depression and burden.

How to communicate with a person with dementia. (2021). Alzheimer’s Society. Available at https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/symptoms-and-diagnosis/symptoms/how-to-communicate-dementia.

  • This article highlights how effective communication with a person living with dementia requires patience, understanding, and flexibility, as each person’s experience is unique. Strategies include creating a calm environment, using simple sentences, listening actively, allowing extra time for responses, and using non-verbal cues, all while respecting the person’s dignity and involving them in conversations to maintain their sense of identity.

Tips for Caregivers and Families of People With Dementia. (2024). National Institute on Aging (NIA). Available at https://www.alzheimers.gov/life-with-dementia/tips-caregivers.

  • This article from NIA provides resources for caring for a person with dementia, offering strategies for everyday care, communication, and safety, such as maintaining routines, offering gentle support, and ensuring a safe home environment.

Using care navigation to address caregiver burden in dementia: A qualitative case study analysis. (2020). Bernstein, A., Merrilees, J., Dulaney, S., et al. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 6, e12010. Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12010.

  • This qualitative case study explores how care navigation can address caregiver burden in dementia by using tailored strategies to reduce guilt, manage patient behaviors, and improve caregiver relationships. Findings highlight the effectiveness of care navigators, particularly those with cultural and linguistic alignment with caregivers, in providing support through phone- and web-based interventions.