Daily Life Modifications

Simplifying the living environment and providing the tools to assist her existing memory can help her maintain independence longer. This has the benefit of reducing stress and slowing further decline.

What you can do:

Find ways to minimize any tasks she may worry about. For example, you could arrange electronic bill paying, hire a lawn service, enlist a young neighbor to handle her laundry, or cancel subscriptions to magazines she never reads. Help her keep her home free of piled-up newspapers, old mail, and other clutter. Look into electronic reminder systems, note-keeping systems, or commercially available tools that can help to prop up a faulty memory.

The catch with daily life modifications:

Be sure to make changes gradually. Too many abrupt changes -- removing all the clutter from a messy home in one sweep, for example -- can be disorienting and stressful to someone with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia and hasten her decline rather than slowing it.