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Alzheimer's Caregivers
Reviewed by Medicinsk Expert•Last updated: 2026-10-22•Social Family Issues

Alzheimer's Caregivers

Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease can be a rewarding experience, but it also requires careful planning and attention to your own well-being.

Overview

A caregiver provides assistance to someone who needs help taking care of themselves. While caregiving can be rewarding and may strengthen connections to a loved one, it can also be stressful and overwhelming, particularly when caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

AD is an illness that changes the brain, causing individuals to lose the ability to remember, think, and use good judgment. As the disease progresses, the individual will require increasing levels of support. It is important for caregivers to learn about the different stages of the disease to effectively plan for the future and secure necessary resources.

Caregiver Responsibilities

As a caregiver for someone with AD, your responsibilities may include:

  • Getting your loved one's health, legal, and financial affairs in order, ideally involving them in the planning process while they are still able to make decisions.
  • Evaluating their home to ensure it is safe for their needs.
  • Monitoring their ability to drive, potentially using a driving specialist, and ensuring they stop driving when it is no longer safe.
  • Encouraging physical activity, such as exercising together.
  • Ensuring your loved one maintains a healthy diet.
  • Assisting with daily tasks such as bathing, eating, or taking medicine.
  • Performing housework and cooking.
  • Running errands, such as shopping for food and clothes.
  • Driving them to appointments.
  • Providing company and emotional support.
  • Arranging medical care and making health decisions.

Managing Caregiver Stress

It is vital not to ignore your own needs while caring for a loved one. Because caregiving can be stressful, you must prioritize your own physical and mental health. When you are no longer able to manage everything on your own, various services are available to assist you:

  • Home care services
  • Adult day care services
  • Respite services for short-term care
  • Federal and state government programs for financial support and services
  • Assisted living facilities
  • Nursing homes, including those with special memory care units
  • Palliative and hospice care

You may also consider hiring a geriatric care manager, a trained professional who can help you identify the right services for your specific needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sundowning refers to increased confusion, anxiety, and restlessness that typically occurs in the late afternoon or early evening. Manage it by maintaining a predictable daily schedule, maximizing exposure to natural daylight during the day, closing curtains and turning on indoor lights before sunset, limiting evening caffeine and sugar, and redirecting the person with calming activities such as familiar music or light chores rather than arguing with their altered reality.
Documents should be executed while the person still possesses legal decision-making capacity. Critical paperwork includes a Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare, a Durable Power of Attorney for finances, an advance directive or living will specifying end-of-life wishes, and an updated will or revocable trust. Establishing these early prevents the need for court-ordered guardianship or conservatorship later in the disease progression.
Warning signs of caregiver burnout include chronic physical exhaustion, frequent illness, social withdrawal, severe irritability, anxiety, depression, and feelings of resentment toward the patient. Caregivers should utilize formal respite services to take planned breaks, which can include in-home personal care aides, adult day care programs, short-term residential respite stays, and local support groups organized through local Area Agencies on Aging or specialized dementia associations.
Driving becomes unsafe when a person demonstrates delayed reflexes, confuses the gas and brake pedals, gets lost in familiar areas, ignores traffic signals, or incurs unexplained scrapes or dents on their car. Because cognitive decline prevents individuals from accurately self-assessing their driving ability, caregivers should ask the treating physician to issue a formal medical driving cessation letter, consult an occupational therapy driving rehabilitation specialist, or if necessary, disable the vehicle or hide the keys.
Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine

MedlinePlus brings together authoritative health information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations.

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