How you have a family member with dementia?

Has your family member or partner been having increasing difficulty with independent living skills, including paying bills, food shopping, driving, or completing daily activities such as getting dressed, bathing, or eating? These difficulties, along with memory and other thinking problems, often bring families of the individuals affected by these symptoms to a neuropsychologist. The Neuropsychological Examination (NPE) is our means of identifying whether these symptoms are due to dementia or some other condition.

If your partner or family member has been diagnosed with dementia, the neuropsychologist will explain the dementia subtype. For instance, some examples of dementia subtypes include vascular dementia, dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, mixed dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia. All dementias are progressive, meaning that the decline in daily functioning worsens over time as the condition accelerates. The diagnosis of dementia is always stressful for families, and many are unprepared to deal with the challenges presented by this medical condition.

Our office offers Medical Adjustment Counseling® (MAC) as a treatment option for families of the patients diagnosed with dementia. MAC® is based on the results of the NPE of the patient. The unique information about the patient’s brain functioning obtained from the NPE is used by your doctor as a guide for treatment. MAC® will help the family understand the patient’s condition, develop adjustment strategies for dealing with their thinking and emotional symptoms, and prepare for the future. MAC® will also help the family acknowledge and address their own emotional issues associated with the increase in caregiving responsibilities and, as a result, improve the functioning of your family unit.

If you have any additional questions about MAC®, please call our office.