Currently, there are more than 47 million people living with dementia in the world. And this number is expected to climb to more than 75 million people by the year 2030. Further, the number of cases is expected to triple by 2050, leading health experts to scramble for both funding and cures for these devastating health issues. 

The problem is that most people don’t understand dementia. This leads to difficulties in obtaining proper care and an overall issue in communicating with loved ones. The result is an exhausting and expensive circus filled with confusion and hopelessness. 

Understanding Dementia

The experience that Carroll went through led her to understand the stories of dementia victims from an inside-out perspective. That’s because Carroll is a registered nurse who now works in a nursing home full time. In this process, she uses the knowledge she obtained through her grandmother to help both patients and families. 

Carroll says that the first step to helping a loved one with dementia is not getting hung up on the diagnosis itself. “View each person as an individual and give them credit,” Carroll says. “Sometimes they know more than we think they do.”

Engaging in this thinking process means refraining from judging daily occurrences as final. Dementia comes and goes, so your loved one may remember you one day and forget your name the next. 

Make it a point to redefine your definition of what it means to receive love. “One of the main things is you have to change your expectations of what love is,” says Carroll. “It seems to me that, even when the memory goes, they still remember that they’re married. They still remember who they love; they still remember their families.”

Further, it’s important to realize that dementia is not a one-stop shop. It’s often a slow descent that may be filled with ups and downs for years.